# Should we use MathJax/LaTeX in question titles?

This question initially had the term "EL" in its title. As the question asks about the meaning of $E_L$ in an equation, I've edited to show MathJax in the title, so it is clear that a subscript is intended.

This shows correctly for me, on both laptop and mobile. The font size for $E_L$ shows slightly smaller for a fraction of a second on mobile with a slower connection.

I find this clearer than just saying EL, and even if it displayed as $E_L$ due to a very slow connection it would be fairly clear what it means. I can imagine this being less clear for longer strings of LaTeX, so I wanted to see discussion of whether we should have a rule for this, or just judge it case by case.

Does anyone find the title of the example question particularly uncomfortable due to the change during loading? Are there any problems elsewhere that I haven't thought of? I've heard search engines mentioned in the past but I wouldn't expect that to be particularly relevant in this case - the EL won't mean much to a search engine either way, and the rest of the title and body contains useful plain text information. What else should be considered?

• I believe questions with MathJax in the title are excluded from the HNQ, so if a question seems popular I'd suggest holding off with editing in MathJax until the question has dropped off the HNQ. Other than that, I generally don't mind MathJax in titles if it improves clarity. – Martin Ender Jul 29 '16 at 13:39