# "N to go for the title" is ambiguous
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [June 13, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514 "2014-06-13T12:59:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/1 "2014-06-13T12:59:16Z")
I’ve had two different users contact me to ask why they weren’t able to “Create Topic” because the button was disabled and grey. It turns out that they didn’t see and understand the “N to go for the title” centered at the bottom as they were typing the title.
IMHO it would probably be helpful for this warning to be (a) somewhere in the proximity of the topic title as they are typing it, and (b) a bit more verbose, e.g., “Your title is N characters too short.”
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/2 "2014-06-13T18:56:54Z")
I disagree – I think the solution is for the button to not be disabled.
Then when you click it, you’ll get the bouncy error messages.
(I don’t think they will see or understand the characters left message, regardless of what the copy says, because [users don’t read anything you put on the screen](http://blog.codinghorror.com/teaching-users-to-read/).)
@neil this is another case where “mysteriously” disabled buttons causes problems. Very much not a fan of this UI technique.
---
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/3 "2014-06-13T20:01:44Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> I disagree – I think the solution is for the button to not be disabled.
I’d be down with that, too … as long as there’s a short explanation why the title needs to be more than N characters. (Good quality, etc.) Otherwise users might feel it arbitrary and stupid unless they’re told why. (Personally I’d think they’d agree once told.)
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/4 "2014-06-13T20:23:13Z")
I think there was another regression, the composer error messages are not showing up at all.
---
### Author:  [@Devanil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Devanil)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/5 "2014-06-13T22:05:37Z")
I received questions concerning this too. I think it need to be clearer.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/6 "2014-06-13T22:11:28Z")
For one thing, the actual error messages _need to appear_. This was largely the result of another highly unfortunate regression.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/7 "2014-06-15T07:59:36Z")
Errors are back. That was another bad re-regression. 😮
For Monday, @neil, make sure the create topic and reply buttons are never in a disabled state – let’s just let the bouncy errors do the talking here.
---
### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/8 "2014-06-16T20:37:53Z")
It’s done. The submit button in the composer is never disabled.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/n-to-go-for-the-title-is-ambiguous/16514/9 "2014-06-16T22:33:21Z")