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I'm currently writing a question for the main RPG stack site.

As usual, I start writing the title first, then the question. But while I was writing my question, another question added to the first, making the question two. I don't think these need to be separated to be answered separately, so please consider that keeping these two little questions is fine here.

The problem is, now the title only concerns my first question, and I can't manage to find a suitable title for the whole question. Everything I came with might be too unclear, broad or misleading.

What should I do when I can't manage to find a clear and good title for a question?

I'd like to avoid posting a question with a bad title and just waiting for someone to edit it.
On the other hand, I'd really appreciate finding an answer to my question, so I'd like to post it, the sooner the better. I guess that if I had to find a title, it would take a long time, or I may even never think of a good one.

What is the best solution here?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast it's my second one, my first is French. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Aug 13, 2019 at 5:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast Just being curious, what was it? \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Aug 13, 2019 at 13:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ I discussed a bit of this in chat with BESW and Vicky_moloch, so rather than clutter up your question, here's a link to our brief discussion. As I re read SSD's answer, I think they covered most of what I was thinking. \$\endgroup\$
    – KorvinStarmast
    Aug 13, 2019 at 13:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast Ho, don't know what I had in mind when I wrote this title, edited. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Aug 14, 2019 at 8:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ All good, it looks like you got good answers and we all benefit. :) Team win. \$\endgroup\$
    – KorvinStarmast
    Aug 14, 2019 at 11:32

2 Answers 2

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Put the best title you can think of and wait for someone to edit it

I know you said you don't want to do exactly that, but it's how the stack format works. Many (if not most) questions get their titles edited and that's fine.

The title doesn't matter much anyway once people have clicked on the question.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yep! As long as you try your best to summarize the question in the title, it's fine. It doesn't need to be perfect :) \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Aug 9, 2019 at 8:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @V2Blast if even you think that is good, then lets go. And I guess the title I came with isn't that bad now that I got a bit of a time to think about it (the question for curious ones). \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Aug 9, 2019 at 8:10
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Use the best title you can think of

Since this is a collaboratively maintained site, someone will give it a better, accurate, descriptive title if the title you came up with isn’t enough.

However, your title struggle might be trying to tell you something…

However, I have noticed in my experience that having a hard time finding a title that covers two connected questions is a red flag that is worth paying attention to. If you have two connected questions in a post, and that specifically makes it hard to title, then it might not count as one question.

If you’re struggling to find a title that isn’t too broad, unclear, or misleading, that suggests that these two little questions aren’t one topic. When this happens, consider splitting it into two questions. Instead of connecting them with one question post, connect them by using links to each other in two separate question posts.

It’s worth remembering that being “little” doesn’t have anything to do with whether they can be combined in one question. The only thing is whether they are really one question or two.

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