# Hijack Policy 2024: A new hope **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 16, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303 "2024-07-16T04:42:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/41 "2024-08-06T16:45:42Z")
You’re not wrong on this one, I just softened the post a little. It was meant as a gentle guidance and a bolded moderating isn’t so gentle I guess. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2024, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/42 "2024-08-06T17:11:31Z")
Thanks for the support John\_DiFool. My post was meant to comment on the rapidity of going from Biden/Harris to unknown/unknown to Harris/unknown to Harris/Walz, which is in contrast to the normal glacially slow movement of the U.S. election process. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/43 "2024-08-07T23:31:05Z")
Not to further clutter the “Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as VP” thread, I just want to acknowledge that here, @What_Exit was right, a few of us got carried away and this went a little too far off the rails. Cutting it off was appropriate, and sorry for my part in it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/44 "2024-08-07T23:34:31Z")
And it wasn’t a big deal, but I figured if I didn’t stop it there it might take over the thread. Thank you for the good review. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/45 "2024-08-08T01:33:25Z")
I personally don’t moderate the forums where hijacks are more tightly controlled and don’t frequent those forums either. However, I would like to point out that it wasn’t the current moderators who changed the enforcement of hijacks and tightened up those forums in general. That was **Jonathan Chance** , and those changes were done for good reason. These are Jonathan’s words on the subject (they were posted in the OP here but I think they are worth repeating): > [@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. Personally, since I don’t frequent those forums, what happens there doesn’t matter much to me. But I do feel that I should point out that those who want less strict moderation are basically saying they want to go back to the prior situation where everyone complained that hijacks were ruining the forums and making it impossible for threads to stay on-topic. Like I said, those rules were changed for good reasons. A lot of folks in this thread seem to be forgetting those reasons. Jonathan considered it to be very important to those forums that the rules be enforced strictly, as they are being enforced now. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/46 "2024-08-08T04:41:58Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > those who want less strict moderation are basically saying they want to go back to the prior situation where everyone complained that hijacks were ruining the forums and making it impossible for threads to stay on-topic. I have no recollection of such complaints in GD or Politics, but I wasn’t active here in Jan 2020. Let me put Jon’s definition in bullet form: 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. Most of the hijack moderation has related to the top consideration: I don’t recall any activity regarding the bottom 2. And tangents don’t typically lead away from the topic so much as distract from the topic. So current moderation I think goes well beyond this definition. Jon also wrote, “Threads exist for a reason. Presumably, the original poster wants to discuss a specific topic.” That permits some moderation of tangents, but it also focuses attention on the intent of the original poster. And some thread starters may not might a tangent here and there. But here’s the bottom line: “Whether or not such is occurring is at the sole discretion of the moderation staff”. So if the current staff thinks their moderation is well-tuned, that’s fine. It’s possible their calibration is identical to that when Jon Chance rolled out this policy. I don’t know. I’m just saying that Jon Chance’s post seem to be directed at borderline trolling behavior - though he also conceded that, “Some of these are inadvertent”. As I indicated in the OP, I consider hijacking outside of GQ to be a non-issue during the vBulletin days, and am honestly perplexed regarding what is the best policy at present. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/47 "2024-08-08T12:24:38Z")
I agree with the folk who sense that moderation of hijacks appears to have become more heavy-handed and pre-emptive of late. But, as with much of these boards, I don’t make the rules, and I appreciate a modded board over unmodded. There is a huge difference IMO between a couple of posters riffing on a tangent for 5-10-20 posts, and a couple of posters completely taking over a thread for their personal disagreement over a tangential point. And it is the exceedingly rare thread in which the former prevents me from continuing to enjoy the thread. (Hell, the opposite sometimes happens - where a thread gets stuck on just rehashing the same limited material - in fidelity to the narrowly defined OP, rather than growing. But it is easy to just decide to stop opening such threads.). I find it pretty easy to skim over series of posts that seem less on-topic or less interesting, but I accept that others enjoy the boards differently than I, and find such digressions more intrusive. In birding and cladistics, participants differ WRT the concepts of clumping vs splitting. WRT splitting off threads, my preference tends towards clumping more than splitting - tho there are likely exceptions on a case-by-case basis. But I’ll continue participating - or not - whatever the moderation philosophy of the moment. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/48 "2024-08-08T21:36:59Z")
I loved the way **puzzlega** l kinda sorta modded here Polls Only- Post 5217. Very gentle and I think a little tongue in cheek. > [@Polls only: No discussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polls-only-no-discussion/953642/5224): > > Hah! I’ve been Geocaching since August 2001. On August 27th, I will have found one everyday for 8 years. Tom [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303.md?page=2)