# 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:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303/6 "2024-07-16T06:32:18Z")
I didn’t like the rule when it was proposed. Back when we had threading in vBulletin I didn’t think it served a purpose, since you could turn on threaded mode and hijacks were no longer a problem. We don’t have threaded mode any more, which is unfortunate, so I guess it is a little helpful now. But I still think it’s not worthwhile. My preferred interpretation of the rule is and has been, OP must present a focused question for debate, on-topic posts should relate to main arguments addressing the question and direct counterarguments. If a side conversation is likely to or has shifted the discussion away from main arguments addressing the OP, it’s a hijack. This obviously doesn’t always work for P&E. For example there are breaking news threads in P&E and there are threads covering the whole of a major investigation or the whole of a candidate’s campaign for office. I mean, there’s a single thread for the entire term of each British prime minister. Could you imagine if we had a single thread for the entire Trump administration? We had [one thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872) for the entire Boris Johnson administration. I often struggle to understand what is or isn’t on-topic in P&E. As for how I follow the hijack rule in practice, I keep in mind an early precedent: > [@How to prevent an omnibus free will topic?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-prevent-an-omnibus-free-will-topic/955599/2): > > Why bring it up at all? The thread was fine and causing no problems. The rules are not being enforced by a computer but a handful of humans. If it is not causing issues we would probably never look at the thread. ~Max --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hijack-policy-2024-a-new-hope/1004303)._