DeArrow/Guidelines
In general, DeArrow titles and thumbnails should provide enough information so that a viewer can make an informed decision on whether they should choose to watch the video. Sensationalism should be avoided.
Note that, in these guidelines, "clickbait" is being used as a neutral term referring to any materials used to convince someone to click on a link.
Titles
Titles are supposed to give you a good description of what's going to happen in the video.
Questions
Prefer a descriptive subject or a statement over questions. In many cases, this makes it easier to see what the video is actually about.
However, for open-ended questions, leaving it that way is fine.
Examples:
- "Is X better than Y?" → "Comparing X and Y" or "Comparison between X and Y"
- "Who owns the moon?" can be left as-is, because it is an open-ended question.
Incomplete titles
Avoid using titles where some interesting information is intentionally left out to get the viewer's interest.
Examples:
- "Intel does what?" → something that actually tells the viewer what Intel has done.
Emphasis
Avoid trying to emphasize certain words by using tricks like surrounding them with another character (like *emphasized*) or setting them into SHOUTING CASE.
Reactions
Avoid telling the viewer how they should react to the video. Note that this is different from a title for a video about someone reacting to something else.
Examples:
- "Shocking facts"
- "Funniest video"
- "You won't believe [...]"
Descriptiveness
Prefer actual information over simply telling the premise of the video, when possible. This should not end up spoiling the video.
Examples:
Perspective
Titles should not be written in the third person about the video creator, unless absolutely necessary. They should rather be in first person, or, preferably, in a passive voice describing the video. Ideally, it should be a completely neutral description; however, this is sometimes not possible.
Examples:
- "I explain hexagonal chess" → "Explaining the rules of hexagonal chess" → "The rules of hexagonal chess"
Length
Titles should not be overly long, as this can severely reduce their readability. Don't overload the viewer with information!
However, a more descriptive title should still be preferred over a shorter one. Strike the right balance here – don't make titles too long or too short just for the sake of it. That would just result in needless verbosity or meaninglessness, respectively.
Language
All titles should be written in the language that the video itself is in. If the video contains text or spoken parts in multiple languages, either the main one or the language of the audience should be used.
Fiction
For fiction pieces, such as short films or art pieces, feel free to leave titles be if they serve the mood, even if they are generic. Sensational titles can be changed or reformatted.
Songs
If the song is a mashup between two or more songs and doesn't already have an original title, the song titles should be separated with a slash (ie. Song one / Song two).
Case
All submitted titles should be in Sentence case (explained below). This is important even if you have personally selected another case in the options. Of course, any words that would normally be capitalised should remain that way. Proper nouns or the word "I" in English are an example. In other languages, it's possible that every noun is capitalised.
Overriding the formatter
All titles (original and custom) are run through a formatter to convert to the user's casing choice. If there are issues with the formatter, you can force words to "keep formatting" by adding a right angle bracket (>) in front of the word, such as >word.
Case types
Title Case
Almost Every Word is Capitalised.
Sentence case
The first word of the title is capitalised.
Similar to APA format's definition of sentence case, the first letter of a subtitle should be capitalised as well, such as after a hyphen, colon, or pipe (-, :, or |, respectively)[1].
Thumbnails
The thumbnail should be chosen to help you know what kind of video you are about to watch, what it'll look like, what it will be like to watch it, etc.
- Avoid exaggerated facial expressions.
- Avoid relying on text.
- Avoid lots of colours.
- Avoid overuse of arrows.
- Avoid showing fake scenarios explaining the idea.
- Avoid unrelated thumbnails.
Series format
Hierarchy: |
If a title exists, it should always be the first element.
Additional metadata for series should be arranged descending in hierarchy, separated with |.
Examples:
- "Deception derby | District transport S1 – Unseen fender | Arc 1 – Chaos surcharge | Episode 4"
Season and episode naming: S#:E#:P#
If there are seasons and episodes defined by the creator, they should be formatted as S#:E#:P#. # is a placeholder for the number in the series here.
P# is optional, if a single episode is separated into multiple parts.
Zero-padding (S01) the number should follow the existing style or convention of the channel.
Season-less or episode-less
Season-less, standalone episodes should be denoted only with E#[Example 1].
Episode-less, standalone videos should be denoted with an unabbreviated Part[Example 2].
Daily shows
Shows without seasons or that are solely based on date should be formatted according to ISO8601, which is YYYY-MM-DD[Example 3]
Variations such as YYYY-DD-MM or YY-MM-DD are not allowed, since they are ambiguous.
Examples:
Subtitles: –
If there's a subtitle to the series or episode, it should be separated with a hyphen (-) or an en dash (–) before the hierarchy separator.
Examples:
- "Deception derby | District transport S1:E4 – Unseen fender"
Additional metadata: ()
If there is any additional metadata, it should be included in parentheses ((...)) at the end of the relevant part of the title, before the hierarchy separator.
Additional metadata can be:
- Featured artists:
(ft. John Doe) - Speedrun categories or modifiers:
(any%)(blindfolded) - Other modifiers that might distinguish it from another part:
(BTS) - Year for media that might have a popular name or multiple iterations:
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019)
Examples:
- "Deception derby (BTS) | ..."
Episode name | Series name S2:E3
"Banned | Hermitcraft S9:E36"
Episode name | Series name notation – Season subtitle | Arc number – Subtitle
"Deception derby | District transport S1:E4:P2 – Unseen fender | Arc 1 – Chaos surcharge"
Episode name | Series name notation
"The Mad Batter machine – the world's longest home run | Smarter every day E230"
Footnotes
| Episode title | Series name | Season # | Season subtitle | Episode # | Part # | Arc # | Arc subtitle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deception derby | District transport | 1 | Unseen fender | 4 | 2 | 1 | Chaos surcharge |