I like hijacks. People apologize for them all the time, but I like them. As long as they’re reasonably self-contained, hijacks can add to the vibrancy of a thread, like subplots add to the vibrancy of a novel or movie. I recall the thread about traveling in the south – it had some amusing diversions into basketball and the vosotros tense of Spanish. If a thread eventually mutates into something tangentially related to the OP, so much the better – it makes me think the thread has achieved an interesting character arc. Threads that stay on point for 100+ posts run the risk of becoming terribly redundant, with the debaters in question having stated their arguments long ago and resorting to slightly repackaging their arguments for yet another fruitless round.
Hijacks would happen all the time in Usenet. It’s called “a meandering thread” and it was a great profile in people’s thought processes. And of course, posters would try to validate their hijack posts by attaching the obligatory “Ob[xxxxxx]” at the end of their messages. Such fun! [back when Usenet was cool. Like ohhhh say… in 1994 or so.]
I agree, I like most hijacks too.
(BTW, I’m counting the seconds until some smartass takes a teeny line from the OP and hijacks THIS thread into a thesis about the Falklands War or something, ending, of course, with a big, green toothy smile.)
Too bad there isn’t a way to add subcategories to subject headings so that a thread that has morphed into other topics wouldn’t stay hidden. I don’t have time to open all the threads, so I rely on the headings a lot (which is why I can’t stand those mystery headings – like “Is this true?” – that morons must think are cute and/or inviting). I’ve missed many a great discussion about something good because it was buried inside a thread titled, say, “Who else loves Britney Spears?”
I hate when that happens.
I don’t mind hijacks too much, as long as they are contained, somewhat related to the OP, and don’t get in the way of the rest of the thread. The worst example I can think of is how the “Who Would YOu Like to Meet” thread got completely hijacked into a sports thread. If it’s that completely off topic, open a new thread folks.
Agreed. Of course, I was referring to hijacks that occur in a spontaneous, organic kind of way. If someone wants to be malicious about it, I can’t stop them.
Hijacks are great. They usually mean that there’s a sub-subject so interesting that it just sucks up the discussion.
Having thoroughly hijacked one of your other threads Snooooopy, I’d like to step in and compliment you on the exceptionally literate nature of your OP.
Citing examples like the “Tips for travelling in the South” thread and using such superb terms as “character arc” was really refreshing to see. Too often, OP’s are just some sort of rambling diatribe instead of a well thought out position. I think I finally got a taste of why you’re a journalist.
All The Best,
Chris
We used to do something like that in Latin class. One time we had a discussion on why European tour buses drive so fast.
Yeah, in my old Current Issues class, it was a contest to see how far off on a tangent I could take (and keep) the class. Sometimes I’d succeed in keeping us so far off subject the entire hour we wouldn’t have homework because we never got that far.
–Tim
- I can usually manage to keep any English-oriented class completely off-topic for an entire hour. It works in French sometimes, too, although mon professeur du francais (pretend there’s a squiggle on that c, ok?) is too smart to let me get too far off-subject. I once managed to subvert a discussion of the proper use of the composed imperfect tense in French literature, into a discussion about bullfighting. The bullfighting discussion then worked off into a tangent about illegal Mexican rodeos on Long Island, and then regular rodeos, and then back to Long Island to talk about the deli down the street from a classmate’s old house in East Northport…
I remember this professor I had for honors symposium, a philosophy teacher. The easy way to get him off track was to use a word which had a neato Greek origin. Ostracism, for instance, which comes from the practice of submitting pieces of broken pottery called ostrakons as ballots when you were voting someone out of the city. His face would light up and he would delve into the explanation for quite some time.
[hijack]
I don’t like hijacks, but you do, so I’m going to ask a question:
do hijacks prolong the life of a thread, or tend to kill it?
[end of hijack]