[kerouacbal]

The guildlines say they do not edit or censor but they change my post's title from
Is CNN trying to stop the economic growth
to
Officials concerned about holiday terror threat

[kerouacbal]

How long with this stay up I wonder

[JennysCool]

That's because your headline was not the original. Original headlines help people search for posts and avoid duplicate posts of the same story. Calm down.

[Fred Mertz]

What was the source title of the article you posted?

[Mr. Bird]

Don't know the specific post, but you're supposed to use the actual headline if it's not an original post. Facilitates searches and helps eliminate duplicate posts. If you want to create your own headline, put it in parentheses next to the real one. Sometimes people just try to be too clever by half, and it muddles up the postings.

[sinkspur]

YOU cannot edit headlines. When you do, the mods will likely change it to the original, and true, headline in the publication or media source you are quoting.

For archival purposes, posting any headline you feel like is a nightmare.

[kevao]

Don't look now, but they've changed your post's title again. Now it's:

"Why does this site edit head lines when it says it does not"

[carpio]

Have you tried logging in?

[HairOfTheDog]

Because it doesn't want ~you~ editing the headlines either.... That would make it edited from the original wouldn't it?

Use the original headline...

[Lead Moderator]

"Why does this site edit head lines"

Quite a number of years ago, I was watching the news, and there was a story about how Ted Turner had bought the rights to a whole bunch of classic movies from the days of black and white, and that he was going to colorize them and re-release them or broadcast them.

It caused a bit of a stir.

Now I do not like Ted Turner one bit. But the local news interviewed him about it, and asked him why he was doing this. His answer?

"Because I want to and I can."

We have a better reason though for why we changed your headline- namely that you changed the headline from what CNN had. This is discouraged for a few reasons. First, altered headlines result in duplicate posts. People generally search for an article before posting it (or in theory, they are supposed to do so), and if a title has been changed they won't find it. Then the discussion ends up fragmented between two or more threads. Second, it causes confusion because some come away with the mistaken impression that a site used that title to begin with.

So don't post with made up titles. If you really must editorialize in the headline, do it in parenthesis after the original title- but be aware if the parenthetical title is a grenade, we'll likely chop that off.

Thanks, LM

[Skooz]

I guess this is a safe place to post this pic:

[RedBloodedAmerican]

"...please use the original titles on your article posts. Do NOT edit the titles. Do NOT use "My Title" titles. This will also help to reduce the number of duplicates."

~ Jim Robinson (click here to read it)

[Hegemony Cricket]

Have you heard about courduroy pillows?

[JoJo Gunn]

I'm personally not fond of those who make fun of the writer's name, or who puts "L.A.Slimes" for the source, etc, either. It could place the Freep at more risk of the LAT/WP type actions. If we want to go after the writer or source, fine, we can in the comments. The article itself should be left pure.

[borisbob69]

All your headlines are belong to us :)

[FourPeas]

Did you read the described below?

[Billthedrill]

They alter the text, too. Why, just the other day I was posting that I thought that the entire government should be executed and the total means of production seized by the state, to be run by workers' committees organized into Soviets in every major manufacturing industry, children mobilized into Hillary Youth battalions, and all of those little grocery store cards that now transfer information to the CIA turned into ration cards, to be vetted monthly by neighborhood Democratic Party commissars, and the Lead Moderator kindly condensed the whole thing for me to "Happy Thanksgiving, FReepers!" Honestly, it's what I was really trying to say...

[BSunday]

The (unofficial) correct way is to post the original headline with your version or comments in parens. Example:

Officials concerned with economic growth (Is CNN trying to stop economic growth?)

If this was already posted, please forgive and check my tag line.

[leadpenny]

I believe you need a question (?) mark at the end of your title. :)

[San Jacinto]

I'm sorry if this has already been covered, but I just got out of ther shower. Is this the thread raising a seriesly hugh question about FR editing headlines when it says it does not?

If so, I would like to inform you that President Bush carried around a turkey on Thanksgiving which was not eaten by the troops. Some people say he was trying to steal it.

[hispanarepublicana]

Maybe it's because some folks don't punctuate their thread titles correctly.