# I object to my warning in "United States and Israel are bombing Iran" **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 1, 2026, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106 "2026-03-01T11:53:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/1 "2026-03-01T11:53:38Z")
In the P&E thread regarding the attack on Iran that has occurred this weekend, **What\_Exit** issues the following guidance; > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/36): > > This is not a breaking news thread, discussions can range around the subject as long as it doesn’t become a distraction like the Market come Monday. To me, this appears to be an acknowledgement that this is a general purpose thread for discussion of the attacks and matters related to it. There are a couple of other notes from What\_Exit and ParallelLines instructing posters to steer away from certain topics that could potentially hijack the thread, to wit; its effect on the stock market, ongoing peace negotiations, the history of US declarations of war, and an aside about Jeffrey Epstein, as presented below. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/27): > > OK, please take stock market effects to its own thread. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/51): > > Find or start a new thread for this peace deal debate. This is a big pull away from the current ongoing bombing. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/73): > > Thank you, yes we are. I’m giving the thread a _VERY_ brief pause (5 minutes) so everyone has a chance to read this note and move back to discussing the current situation rather than past situations in _this_ thread. No note directed at anyone, it seemed a benign, organic side track, but please spin off your own thread if you want to discuss historical declarations of war None of these notes resulted in a warning. User **Eric1** then commented about a recent 60 Minutes story about how Iranians were friendly to foreign tourists, which prompted me to comment on a similar video I had seen, which I linked, since I assumed he’d want to see it. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/181): > > I remember a CBS 60 Minutes story about 7-8 years ago about how friendly Iran was to tourists. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/182): > > I saw a video on Youtube last year by a Hasidic Jew from NYC with a thick Yiddish accent who traveled to Iran to visit some landmarks from Persian Jewish history and the locals in the video were unfailingly kind to him. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/184): > > That video sounds great to watch! > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/189): > > Here it is. **This** resulted in me receiving a warning from What\_Exit. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/193): > > Not sure how you could possibly think this was relative to the thread in any way. > > Continuing such an off topic hijack. > > Also seeing you just gone warned for hijacking on February 2nd. Be much more alert. > > @Eric1 pointing at you also, don’t stray so far from topic. None of the other supposedly off-topic posts in this thread, several of which lasted much longer and involved several more posters, merited a warning. Why does this exchange, between the two of us, warrant one? Per your own previous guidance, this is a thread in which “discussions can range around the subject as long as it doesn’t become a distraction”. There was no previous indication that this particular branch of discussion was forbidden or that it should be avoided. It doesn’t appear to have hijacked the thread in any way since the discussion was limited to the two of us. I strongly object to your declaration that you’re “not sure how you could possibly think this was relative to the thread in any way”, as the fact that war has now broken out between the US and Iran is clearly relevant to the ability of Americans to travel peacefully to Iran, and it’s worth noting that the Iranian people are generally friendly to American travelers in a discussion of war between our countries. I believe this warning was improperly issued and I am requesting that it be retracted. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/2 "2026-03-01T12:56:22Z")
What you quoted out of context was in reply to this: > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/35): > > [As of this moment, I don’t see a “breaking-news” tag, so … hope this is okay] I was addressing the #breaking-news tag question. My statement was in no way, _any hijacks are permitted._ Your series of posts were way off-topic for a #Politics & Elections thread. It will not be retracted. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/3 "2026-03-01T13:49:53Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Your series of posts were way off-topic for a #Politics & Elections thread. None of the other posts you noted received a warning, and they continued for several posts longer than the discussion Eric1 and I were having. Why were they not warned? What makes our discussion “way off-topic” and worthy of a warning, when you used no such intensifier for the previous notes, and gave no previous notice that such a topic was off-topic? For that matter, now that you’ve editied the thread to hide my post of the video, why is it that _only_ my post with the link to the video is hidden, and not the three posts that lead up to it? How is travel by US citizens to Iran “way off-topic” to a thread about the US bombing Iran? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/4 "2026-03-01T14:35:20Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Your series of posts were way off-topic for a #Politics & Elections thread. Politics and elections are all about winning hearts and minds and that is what those quite interesting posts were about. The friendliness of the average Iranian to foreigners is extremely relevant to the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/5 "2026-03-01T14:38:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Why were they not warned? Maybe, just maybe, this might have something to do with it, > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/193): > > Also seeing you just got warned for hijacking on February 2nd. but, clearly, that’s crazy talk. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/6 "2026-03-01T14:58:56Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I believe this warning was improperly issued and I am requesting that it be retracted. I agree with you - I thought it at the time I read the exchange. A discussion of the nature of the Iranian people, and their warmth towards foreigners, is pretty relevant to a discussion about a U.S. war with Iran. Even if it strayed slightly, it was hardly a hijack; those usually occur when a people start to _argue_ about collateral issues not germane to the thread. Here, it was a follow up to a relevant point, and it wasn’t a belabored one. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/7 "2026-03-01T15:38:20Z")
Since I prompted this thread, I think I could have easily brought up my travel ideas in Cafe Society. It wasn’t meant to be a heavy theme the way I wrote it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/8 "2026-03-01T20:39:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > None of the other supposedly off-topic posts in this thread, several of which lasted much longer and involved several more posters, merited a warning. But they all got notes, so generally a Warning comes when the guidance by the notes is seemingly ignored. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/9 "2026-03-01T20:56:53Z")
Speaking as another P&E moderator, we elevate to warnings when we see that our notes have had no effect on the conduct of some posters. Some often hijack threads with little regard to what the actual topic of the thread is. @Smapti, you are such a one. When you do it a lot, we notice, and we escalate our corrective measures. Please pay attention to the topic in P&E/GD threads, and make sure you are keeping close to it in your contributions. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/10 "2026-03-01T20:57:02Z")
@Smapti - I specifically am being more aggressive in this thread as a result of the moderation difficulties in the ICE shootings thread in which you picked up the recent warning. I don’t think I’m going to be alone in seeing the pattern: a heavily emotionally charged political thread, lots of slowly updating news, and tons of sub/side topics springing up in the lack of definitive information. In that thread, we (the collective mods) allowed a fair bit of topic drift, which when we tried to rein it in, got a lot of pushback, and resulted in a nearly endless stream of mod notes, which were, collectively ignored or forgotten until we finally started handing out warnings. So for this new thread, I at least have been quite active (IRL permitting) in trying to keep it on track, trying to prevent the situation in the ICE shooting thread from rearing it’s ugly head again. As for the specific hijack, I can fully grant your _intent_ was, as stated in this OP - > [@Smapti](#): > > User **Eric1** then commented about a recent 60 Minutes story about how Iranians were friendly to foreign tourists, which prompted me to comment on a similar video I had seen, which I linked, since I assumed he’d want to see it. But look at that entire statement - you’re sharing something you think Eric1 would like. That’s cool, but it’s NOT about the current conflict. It’s _perhaps_ tangentially related, in terms of general attitudes as @Moriarty asserted (though a pair of specific individuals interaction isn’t exactly a demographic trend), but what his comments miss is that we’ve had the first OT/tangential post, then Eric1’s response, then your follow up and then if unmoderated, a full blow sidetrack. I’m not ascribing any willfulness in trying to drag it off topic, but it absolute was contributing to a substantial distraction. But this result shouldn’t be a surprise - your own cites of the heavy moderation in thread works against you. We were moderating for sidetracks, sidejacks, and hijacks EARLY, which should be a very strong indication we were taking it seriously - not getting warnings for the first few was our (more or less usual) consideration that we knew this topic would be challenging, but that you needed to stop. It should not be a surprise that later efforts to take the thread off-topic after all the mentions you cited wouldn’t pull more severe moderation. By my count, there had already been four (!) mod notes at that point about various off-topic posts in roughly 24 hours. There’s always a tendency if we don’t @ you by name in a mod-note to think it doesn’t apply to you, but notes are frequently used to address problems we moderators see in a thread, even if we’re sometimes using specific posters/posts to emphasize the point. Lastly - you discuss @What_Exit moderating the thread about not being a “breaking-news” thread, but seem to miss a different clause in that mod-note: > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/36): > > **Moderating:** > > This is not a breaking news thread, discussions can range around the subject as long as it doesn’t become a distraction like the Market come Monday. “As long as it doesn’t become a distraction” is the clause you should pay attention too. The back and forth between you and Eric1 absolutely qualified. Again, not ascribing ill intent, but it was becoming a distraction. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/11 "2026-03-01T22:30:06Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > “As long as it doesn’t become a distraction” is the clause you should pay attention too. The back and forth between you and Eric1 absolutely qualified It seems to me that my posting the video was logically the _end_ of that particular conversation. The conversation was not.at risk of being derailed, and it was shorter and involved fewer posters than the asides that had been noted. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/12 "2026-03-01T22:32:56Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It seems to me that my posting the video was logically the _end_ of that particular conversation. I have sometimes posted a reply assuming it would end a line if discussion, but inevitably it doesn’t turn out that way. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/13 "2026-03-01T22:35:57Z")
It was very off topic and assumptions are often incorrect. As someone that keeps running afoul of our highjacking rules, I strongly suggest you err on the side of caution. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/14 "2026-03-01T22:36:36Z")
It is very rare that “the last word on the subject” actually turns out to be the last word on the subject, though. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/15 "2026-03-01T22:37:20Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I have sometimes posted a reply assuming it would end a line if discussion, but inevitably it doesn’t turn out that way. This happens a lot, I stop myself from posting barely related thoughts daily for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/16 "2026-03-01T22:40:40Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > It was very off topic I really don’t see how. As Elmer\_J.Fudd points out above; > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Politics and elections are all about winning hearts and minds and that is what those quite interesting posts were about. My intent in mentioning the video and then posting it was to show how the Iranian people, unlike their government, are generally friendly and kind to foreigners, including the specific kind of people their government explicitly hates (Americans and very visibly Jewish people). That seems to me to be extremely relevant to a thread where regime change and the future of the Iranian government are topics of discussion. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/17 "2026-03-01T22:41:16Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It seems to me that my posting the video was logically the _end_ of that particular conversation. The conversation was not.at risk of being derailed, and it was shorter and involved fewer posters than the asides that had been noted. I don’t buy that argument. A video that hijacks the thread is often, almost always, a matter of further comment and debate about a side subject to the thread. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2026, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/18 "2026-03-01T22:42:31Z")
Back to my last reply to you, err on the side of caution. Clearly you’re out of sync with the staff when it comes to hijacks. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/19 "2026-03-01T22:49:54Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Clearly you’re out of sync with the staff when it comes to hijacks. It seems to me that I must be. A hijack as I understand it is when a side topic takes over the entire conversation to the point that discussing the ostensible topic of the thread is no longer possible because it’s being drowned out. A late night exchange between two people that lasts a total of four posts, during which the larger conversation continues unimpeded, hardly qualifies. If there was a concern that it _could_ become a hijack, then it seems to me that a note would have been more appropriate to stop it from getting to that point. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/20 "2026-03-01T22:56:42Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > A hijack as I understand it Which is all fine and well but you didn’t write this rule, > [@SDMB rules 9/12/2023](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-rules-9-12-2023/990013/1): > > [SDMB rules 9/12/2023](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-rules-9-12-2023/990013/1) > **Hijacks.** Do not attempt to abruptly change the subject or tone of a thread or behave in a manner that in our opinion disrupts or sidetracks a productive discussion (“hijacking” or “derailing”). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106.md?page=2)