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I had recently made an edit on the title of this question, so that it is applicable to a more general audience and a person clicking it would know what they are getting into. In a little while, the OP had undone the edit and gave this explanation when I brought it up:

@Buraian The tags answer that question. Someone who has studied limits should be aware of the naming conventions such as L and a. If not, the body of the question will answer it since I've provided the definition, which will explain what does each letter mean.

This leads to my question, should we edit a question so that it is more searchable at the expense of the way the OP wants the question to be phrased?


For reference, the OP's question is about epsilon delta proofs and this is his current title:

Is $L$ a function of $a$

And this was the title I had put,

In the ϵ−δ definition of the limit, is the limit value a function of a?

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    $\begingroup$ The reason I bring it up is because, from what I've learned on physics SE, the question should be made such that it is helpful for maximum number of people rather than one single individual. Better titles improve searchability, which in turn helps in the previous point I mentioned. $\endgroup$
    – Brian
    Commented Apr 24, 2021 at 20:54
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    $\begingroup$ I agree that your title was an improvement over the original. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Commented Apr 24, 2021 at 22:59
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    $\begingroup$ "Naming conventions" vary from country to country, even from textbook to textbook within a country, even from teacher to teacher within an institution. "Is $L$ a function of $a$" is a terrible title for a question, and more power to anyone who edits it. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 25, 2021 at 0:22

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According to me, the title should be made as specific and unambiguous as possible. A descriptive and crisp title that summarizes the gist of the question in the body would make the question more easily searchable by others, and hence prevent duplicate questions from being published.

In your example, $L$ and $a$ may be well-understood by some people and ambiguous for others due to $2$ reasons:

$1.$ Different letters and symbols hold different meanings in different contexts.

$2.$ Different notational conventions worldwide as mentioned in the comments.

So, I agree with editing the title to remove any ambiguities. In cases where the OP has opposing views about this, they should understand that such an edit benefits more people than if it hadn’t been made.

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