# Heavy-handed hijack moderation **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 29, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303 "2023-06-29T18:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/1 "2023-06-29T18:10:40Z")
When you have to call out _ **fourteen** _ different posters to stop hijacking, does it ever feel like you’re imposing artificial rules contrary to the culture of the thread? Maybe it’s not the posters who are doing it wrong. > [@FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence (August 8, 2022)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-search-and-seizure-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-residence-08-08-22/969329/6577): > > Moderating: @The_Librarian, @Spoons, @rocking_chair, @Atamasama, @Johnny_L.A, @Love_Rhombus, @simster, @susan, @Frazzled, @slicedalone, @Knowed_Out, @Dung_Beetle, @EllisDee, @JohnT: What Trump meant by saying he is a “legitimate person” may be a matter for discussion. But not in this thread. In this thread, it’s hijacking. Let’s stop with it now. In future, please choose a different thread for goofing around. I’m losing patience with all the hijacking. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/2 "2023-06-29T18:27:30Z")
No. I think it means many posters ignore the rules as they are currently written, no matter how many times we remind them. > [@New Rules for Great Debates and Elections – January 2020](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-rules-for-great-debates-and-elections-january-2020/845726/1): > > **Hijacks.** This is, perhaps, the single largest and most important change to the rules in Great Debates and Politics and Elections made in 2020. Staying on topic is a strong goal of Great Debates and Politics and Elections moving forward. Threads exist for a reason. Presumably, the original poster wants to discuss a specific topic. Posts which pull the thread away from that topic are hijacks. Some of these are inadvertent, some are not. Posts that seem intended to steer a discussion away from the original topic may be sanctioned. Hijacks may be, but are not limited to, posts that lead away from a topic, endless questioning, repeatedly asking the same or similar questions once they’ve been answered, and other maneuvers. Whether or not such is occurring is at the sole discretion of the moderation staff and may lead to official sanction. You want a rules change, take that up. Don’t get hot headed at the mods tasked with enforcing the rules as written. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/3 "2023-06-29T18:31:53Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > No. I think it means many posters ignore the rules as they are currently written, no matter how many times we remind them. Yeah, I could find a hundred or more people a day who roll stop signs and red light right turns. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the rules. LOL ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/4 "2023-06-29T18:36:22Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > You want a rules change, take that up. Don’t get hot headed at the mods tasked with enforcing the rules as written. Hotheaded? The OP was written with rolling eyes, not rage. The moderation itself is what I would classify as closer to hotheaded. At very least, it had a definite schoolmarm-scold “Stop having fun this instant!” vibe to it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/5 "2023-06-29T18:38:52Z")
I saw that thread going off the rails days ago, but because I was trying to _avoid being too heavy-handed with modding hijacks_, I hoped it would right itself when posters realized how far afield they had gone. Didn’t happen. It’s fourteen people _only_ because I chose to not step in sooner and everyone thought they could ignore the rules. Basically you’re inviting us to mod hijacks harder, not more gently. > [@EllisDee](#): > > The moderation itself is what I would classify as closer to hotheaded. At very least, it had a definite schoolmarm-scold “Stop having fun this instant!” vibe to it. You’re entitled to your opinion. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/6 "2023-06-29T18:41:27Z")
How about instead of your little multi-post rage fit, you moderated something more like: “Hey guys, I see you’re having fun, but let’s try to wrap this hijack up within the next hour or two.” EDIT: I mean, you actually wrote “stop goofing around.” It’s really hard to read that any other way than “Stop having fun!” And again, you wrote this to 14 different people. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/7 "2023-06-29T18:47:03Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Yeah, I could find a hundred or more people a day who roll stop signs and red light right turns. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the rules. LOL Agreed, but if cops started pulling over all of them at once, the citizenry would rightly grouse about quotas and heavy-handed enforcement. When it’s such a large number of posters in a thread, an argument can be made that we’re following the pace of traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/8 "2023-06-29T18:58:38Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Agreed, but if cops started pulling over all of them at once, the citizenry would rightly grouse about quotas and heavy-handed enforcement. But people would stop at stop signs. And there wouldn’t be a need for enhanced enforcement any more. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/9 "2023-06-29T19:10:17Z")
You might note that hijack-moderating is different depending on the topic being moderated. Be as fun-loving as you like in some topics, follow the rules in others. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/10 "2023-06-29T19:11:16Z")
The rule that @Aspenglow posted in Post #2 is what’s compelling to me. GD and P&E are but two forums, and a decision was made that we – collectively – look for a high signal-to-noise ratio on those two forums, particularly or exclusively. Which I appreciate. Some of these substantive threads cost me too much time when the OP is of interest to me and I have to wade through the OT stuff to learn what I came TO the thread to learn in the first place. And I have **certainly** been called out for hijacking more than one of these threads more than once. I’ll confess that it never _feels_ particularly good, but I’ve always _earned_ my tut-tut when I got one 😉 As to style? Meh. I can see a lengthy list of worse ways to counsel people than what we’re talking about here. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/11 "2023-06-29T19:11:25Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > You might note that hijack-moderating is different depending on the topic being moderated. Be as fun-loving as you like in some topics, follow the rules in others. My point is when a large chunk of the participants in a thread are having fun, maybe letting them have their fun wouldn’t be the end of the world. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/12 "2023-06-29T19:13:05Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > And I have **certainly** been called out for hijacking more than one of these threads more than once. I’ll confess that it never _feels_ particularly good, but I’ve always _earned_ my tut-tut when I got one 😉 Have you ever been called out for hijacking along with most of the posters in the thread? Or has it been just you or maybe just a handful of people that included you? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/13 "2023-06-29T19:13:12Z")
My point was take it to a different topic, one that has not requested particular rules. There’s still plenty of fun on the Dope. Come visit MMP for example. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/14 "2023-06-29T19:13:38Z")
But that fun arose organically in that thread, which seemingly would make it the natural place for it. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/15 "2023-06-29T19:17:54Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > But people would stop at stop signs. And there wouldn’t be a need for enhanced enforcement any more. Or maybe they might collectively go to town hall and complain about traffic enforcement. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/16 "2023-06-29T19:21:35Z")
Both. I’ve been called out on my own _and_ as part of a group that ran afoul of the rules. While I understand and respect your position, I don’t happen to share it. If enough people try to break into the Capitol on January 6th, I don’t think that’s a rationale to change the visiting hours 😉 YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/17 "2023-06-29T19:41:01Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > “Hey guys, I see you’re having fun, but let’s try to wrap this hijack up within the next hour or two.” “Hey-I’m giving everyone a couple of hours to drive this thread completely off the rails, allowing newcomers to the thread think that your hijack is the _real_ topic.”, soon to be followed by the official “O.k., the hijack stops now-I really _really_ mean it this time!” modpost, which would of course be followed by the “Why are you being so heavy-handed?? For two hours we were all getting along just fine, so why did you have to step in, huh??” response. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/18 "2023-06-29T19:54:05Z")
No thread that’s been open for a year and has 6583 posts is sticking closely to the original subject. Only three threads about Trump in P&E have been posted to in the past week. One of the three is more about the House than Trump. People are obviously going to put all their non-pit comments in the thread that is open. Several options occur to me. 1. Close all threads that either have 1000 posts or are still open after six months. 2. Allow general threads like [How has the disgraced former President Trump pissed you off today?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-the-disgraced-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/942178) in P&E. 3. Instead of splitting off hijacks, let dozens of threads be started even if they are similar to one another. 4. Let long threads take their course. 5. Poll the membership to see if people care about hijacks, and if so under what circumstances. I think that every thread that has more than about ten posts include hijacks. Moderating some and not others just comes across as inconsistent and unfair. I have no idea what is or isn’t a hijack under current policy. I have no idea why you split some hijacks off to their own threads and some just get shut down. There are rules but no policy. And the rules are terrible. “…endless questioning, repeatedly asking the same or similar questions once they’ve been answered, and other maneuvers.” is not hijacking, but being a jerk. Nor is it applicable to the hijack being discussed here. > [@Aspenglow](#): > > You want a rules change, take that up. Don’t get hot headed at the mods tasked with enforcing the rules as written. I want a rules change. If the mods were enforcing that rule as written this thread wouldn’t exist in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/19 "2023-06-29T19:58:02Z")
[quote=“Exapno\_Mapcase, post:18, topic:986303”] 5. Poll the membership to see if people care about hijacks, and if so under what circumstances. [/quote] A member whose ox is being gored is much more likely to participate in such a poll. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303/20 "2023-06-29T20:01:00Z")
That’s true about all voting and polling everywhere. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-handed-hijack-moderation/986303.md?page=2)