# Can you prevent specific characters in a topic title?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 10, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206 "2019-01-10T16:50:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RobMeade](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RobMeade)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/1 "2019-01-10T16:50:37Z")
I find myself often amending the titles of user topics, specifically when they do something like this;
> [Question] Can I ask a question?
Whilst the wording in the question may vary, but the prefixing of topics is becoming really annoying as, in my opinion, it reduces the readability of the actual question. Often it causes the topic titles to wrap around on the _Latest_ view also so things beginning to look a bit messy.
I’ve had a glance at the settings but I can only find the ability to limit the character length or word length for topic titles, I couldn’t see an option to prevent the use of certain characters. Is there such an option, and, if not, would one be worthy of consideration?
The ideal solution would be to perhaps detect the prefixing (or suffixing) and warn the user and not allow the post to be submitted perhaps rather than just basing it on a specific character being in the post.
So, [Question] or [Solved] or (solved) or [Help] for example would all be candidates to not be allowed - configurable via the settings.
But a post with a title like;
> Why do we use the [SerializeField] attribute?
…would be allowed.
This is kind of in line with the “title pretify” setting I suppose.
Any thoughts?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/2 "2019-01-11T00:26:56Z")
You could add it to the Watched Words, but there’s no setting covering the “just in the topic title” scenario.
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### Author:  [@RobMeade](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RobMeade)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/3 "2019-01-11T00:32:40Z")
Are those checked against for the topic titles Jeff?
I just literally added “[Question]” under the _Block_ option for Watched Words and was then able to post a topic which had that in the title.
* * *
Update
Yep, tested again, topic title is ignored from watched words it seems..
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/4 "2019-01-11T00:35:02Z")
You wouldn’t get what you want either way. You’d be blocking _post bodies_ from containing that, which is a seriously debilitating side effect.
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### Author:  [@RobMeade](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RobMeade)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/5 "2019-01-11T00:37:10Z")
I’ve just tested the _Block_ option again and it doesn’t appear to be blocking anything? Am I doing something wrong?
I added “Smurf” as the word. Have tried it in the title and in the body, the post goes straight through?
Post bodies I don’t think we’d have the [Question] or [Solved] text added within though, so I’d be happy to take that chance, assuming the square brackets aren’t truncated or anything leaving only the actual “word”?
* * *
Update
Its going to be because I’m an admin isn’t it… this bypasses the Block I’m guessing?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/6 "2019-01-11T00:40:21Z")
Yes that would indeed be the reason. With great power comes _blah blah blah_ 😉
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### Author:  [@RobMeade](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RobMeade)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/7 "2019-01-11T00:41:47Z")
hehe, my spidey senses were tingling!
Ok, I’ll test again impersonating someone and see how it goes, thanks for the suggestion of the watched words, will tread gently to start with and see what happens, just really want to stop all this prefixing… the more users that see other users doing it seem to then follow suit so its breeding more and more…
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-you-prevent-specific-characters-in-a-topic-title/106206/8 "2021-12-20T05:04:30Z")