# 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:** 2
**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, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/21 "2026-03-01T22:57:37Z")
> [@SDMB rules 9/12/2023](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-rules-9-12-2023/990013/1): > > 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 I fundamentally do not see how I did any such thing. ---
**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, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/22 "2026-03-01T22:57:58Z")
Dude, several posters were mod-noted to not hijack the thread, then there was a general mod note to everyone to not post further hijacks, and then you came in with another hijack. And got a warning. That’s totally standard modus operandi here by the mods. ---
**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, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/23 "2026-03-01T22:59:00Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > and then you came in with another hijack. How is it a hijack to demonstrate that the Iranian people are not like their government? ---
**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, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/24 "2026-03-01T23:00:05Z")
Was that the subject of the thread? ---
**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, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/25 "2026-03-01T23:00:45Z")
The subject of the thread was the war in Iran. The attitudes of the Iranian people is relevant to that topic. ---
**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, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/26 "2026-03-01T23:03:02Z")
The attitudes of the Iranian people has nothing to do with the war in Iran. ---
**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, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/27 "2026-03-01T23:03:15Z")
Thank you to those trying to explain this, I don’t think they’re being obstinent or anything, but I find it frustrating they’re not getting it. ---
**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, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/28 "2026-03-01T23:09:40Z")
Of course it is. How could it possibly not be? The Iranian people are the ones who are going to have to live with the consequences of this war and decide what happens to their government in its aftermath. It’s also a topic that SEVERAL people are discussing in the same thread after my warning, to wit; > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/214): > > There were quite literally _millions_ of Iranians protesting the Regime last month, and many of them were chanting slogans centered around Reza Pahlavi. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/220): > > From the reporting I’ve seen, a lot of Iranians are overjoyed over the death of the Ayatollah. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/222): > > The fact that a hated outsider has just attacked them. That always makes a country’s leadership more powerful. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/242): > > Yes, and by doing something like this, this administration is giving a tremendous amount of fuel to the people of Iran to become terrorists or generally anti-American people. > [@United States and Israel are bombing Iran](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028071/247): > > It’s clearly up to Iranians to fight their own battle. Are these posters also hijacking the thread? ---
**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, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/29 "2026-03-01T23:15:40Z")
I coulda swore we just finished a thread (that Smapti participated in) that made it clear that P&E was going to be modded more tightly when the question was posts that strayed from the OP. If only because tangential matters, no matter how germane, could be made into new threads with ease. A movie recommendation could have easily been made with a PM or, get this, a post in the thread announcing that a new thread had been opened. And that wouldn’t have been a hijack! ---
**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, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/30 "2026-03-01T23:17:55Z")
Yes, no, and maybe. ---
**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, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/31 "2026-03-01T23:25:40Z")
That’s not an answer. If my two posts were a hijack, then the thread has been in a total unmoderated hijack for the last 12 hours and 50+ posts. ---
**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, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/32 "2026-03-01T23:29:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That’s not an answer. Yes it is, you asked me about five fucking posts, you expect only one answer? ---
**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, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/33 "2026-03-01T23:49:45Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > I coulda swore we just finished a thread (that Smapti participated in) that made it clear that P&E was going to be modded more tightly when the question was posts that strayed from the OP. If only because tangential matters, no matter how germane, could be made into new threads with ease. Yes, I referenced it above as a reason as why I at a minimum am being more careful in this thread. Because we ended up with a lot of ATMB complaints (as is common) about why we didn’t moderate more heavily _earlier_ or why we didn’t just punish the hijackers: > [@ParallelLines](#): > > @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. @Smapti - as several posters shared, it’s really easy for a hijack to continue after it gets introduced and traction, which it seems to be where your side note was headed. And as is a trope on the board, the plural of anecdote isn’t data - a single example of one Muslim and Jewish pair getting along is a lovely image, but there’s a big difference between that and the quotes you provided to @crowmanyclouds, words such as “millions”, “a lot of”, “countries”, “tremendous amount of fuel”. Sure, pretty sweeping statements, but I’m positive I could find cites to support that general magnitude. A single pair? No, I’m not going to draw useful conclusions from such. Again, for the third or fourth time, I want you to take it to the heart, I believe your intentions weren’t to start a hijack, but both yours and Eric1’s comments were about a specific, almost completely unrelated incident. That would have been better handed in a PM conversation between you, or even a counter thread: “People CAN get along!” or something similar in another thread. ---
**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, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/34 "2026-03-01T23:58:01Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Because we ended up with a lot of ATMB complaints (as is common) about why we didn’t moderate more heavily _earlier_ or why we didn’t just punish the hijackers: Like it or not, if the mods do not come down on hijacks early and harshly then the rule will not become ingrained in the the posters. I’ve started to, at least try to, ignore very challengeable claims in threads in GD and P&E because I know that that exchange will be ruled as “starting” a hijack. ---
**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 2, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/35 "2026-03-02T00:02:48Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Again, for the third or fourth time, I want you to take it to the heart, I believe your intentions weren’t to start a hijack, but both yours and Eric1’s comments were about a specific, almost completely unrelated incident. So I’m being given a warning for an _accident_? ---
**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 2, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/36 "2026-03-02T00:09:03Z")
You were given a warning for a really off topic post. And this was in a thread with modnotes already handed out to stay on topic. Your logic is faulty, you think you were on topic , you really weren’t. Tourism was very off topic for a war zone. Now, I have spent far too much time on this, good night. ---
**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 2, 2026, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/37 "2026-03-02T00:12:39Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > You were given a warning for a really off topic post. And this was in a thread with modnotes already handed out to stay on topic. This was a thread in which YOU said “discussions can range around the topic”. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Tourism was very off topic for a war zone. “Tourism” was not the purpose of my comment. The purpose of my comment was to demonstrate that the Iranian people are not the Iranian government. If that is off-topic then so are half a dozen other posters who have not been noted or warned. ---
**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 2, 2026, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/38 "2026-03-02T00:24:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So I’m being given a warning for an _accident_? You’re going down the same mental route we’ve gone over several times on a similar subject - Trolling. We’ve had long discussions that intent should be more important than results. So if you’re _honestly_ trying to discuss a subject _you feel_ is appropriate, that despite being a sidetrack or hijack in the minds of others (including the mods) that it’s “different”. I’m happy to take you and a number of other posters who say they don’t “intend” to derail a thread, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing it. To use insurance terms, there’s a different between “careless” and “reckless” driving from the POV of the cops, but very often the results are the same. You were, IMHO, in this case, careless, not reckless, nor intentional. Still think it was noticeable, and very likely to lead into other one-off or unhelpful _individual_ anecdotes about an episode taking place in a very different time and place from where we find ourselves in the _current_ conflict. ETA - see your own comments on “the \*purpose of my comment”. But you didn’t POST any of that. Going forward it wouldn’t _hurt_ to try to explicitly tie your post to the direct topic of the thread, especially in P&E/GD. In addition, plenty of people in that very thread expressed the same sympathy for the people if not the governments of the nations involved - I did so myself, but not in the form of an unrelated video anecdote in a very different situation. ---
**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 2, 2026, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/39 "2026-03-02T00:40:16Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > ETA - see your own comments on “the \*purpose of my comment”. But you didn’t POST any of that. Going forward it wouldn’t _hurt_ to try to explicitly tie your post to the direct topic of the thread, especially in P&E/GD. It seemed self-evident to me. Eric1 mentioned a 60 Minutes story about the good nature of the Iranian people. I responded by mentioning a video that demonstrated that same point and providing it to show that point. I really struggle to find how that could be seen as me saying “Hey, look at this cool tourism video I found which is not relevant to this topic”. If I’m not going to change anyone’s mind then I won’t bother continuing to plead my case on this matter, but at this point I’m afraid to post ANYTHING on those boards if I can get a mark on my permanent record for a comment that I find relevant to the topic, which is not intended to derail the conversation, which other people are already discussing and continue to discuss, and which by your own acknowledgement was unintentional and at best only had the _potential_ to become a distraction. ---
**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 2, 2026, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106/40 "2026-03-02T01:29:33Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It seemed self-evident to me. And this is what you’ve been arguing for the entirety of this thread: “To you”, “I think”, “Should be Obvious”, “Self-Evident to me”. Despite myself and What\_Exit explaining our POV, and several other posters sharing how they too catch themselves doing it. Instead, I see you point out your thought process and every single time I see it as “And this is how a hijack happens”. And let me be clear - your comment was already _becoming_ a hijack - it hadn’t reached full-blown, but it as I said in a recent thread, I might let one go as a one off, a second as to not be a killjoy, but once we get three and past - yeah, I tend to note it. Much less a thread that, I repeat, had 4 (!) mod notes involving staying on topic and avoiding side conversations in 24 hours. As for being an “accident” as I just said, that is my understanding, it doesn’t serve as an _excuse_. Careless vs. Reckless. Please remember the earlier point that if there are that many notes in a thread, that you should apply the direction carefully, even if you don’t get a direct quote or @. IF you have something to share and are concerned that it’s not on topic in P&E/GD (for the umpteenth time, these are two forums that have clear and explicit rules as of 2020 about hijacks getting minimal tolerance) than _please_ feel free to spin it off as I suggested in my prior Posts. NO one is stopping you from creating a counter thread, where it wouldn’t be a threadshit, or off-topic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-object-to-my-warning-in-united-states-and-israel-are-bombing-iran/1028106.md?page=3)