Cnote,
A hijack means never having to say …
YOUR TAKING YOURSELF TOO FAWKING SERIOUS!
Become? It was BS to begin with. As evidenced by the fact that the single largest subthread here has nothing whatsoever to do with the OP.
Or Tennis.
Or splinters.
But rather your reaction to the hijack.
Of course, you’ve already dismissed any idea that you’ve hijacked this thread, but, there you go.
(IOW, a thread that gets hijacked and never gets back to the OP is a dead thread being kept alive by the hijack.)
Hmm. Personally I’m still waiting for the hordes of cowed dopers who were desperate to continue this pointless modbitchfest to come out of the shadows and back Cnote up.
Hell - even one would be nice.
pan
All right, once and for all, and then I’m out of this mess of a thread.
Way back on the first page, as the discussion is getting underway, post number six, to be exact, is the Gary Kumquat post I took/take exception to.
It was far from clear at that point, if you ask me, that the question in the O.P. had been resolved.
As a matter of fact, it seemed like it was building up to- what could hopefully- be a quick and fast end.
Great. I’m not going to argue about it coming to a quick end.
What pissed me off back then was Gary’s needlessly jumping into the fray at that point and starting up the tennis hijack. To me, it’s an in your face, ‘I’m going to kill this bad-boy because I simply don’t like it’ thing.
That’s damn presumptuous that early in the game. I’d argue that it’s presumptuous as hell under all conditions but the silo thread, and others people have mentioned, but I’ll concede that one.
Anyrate, it’s obvious at that point that he thought the thread was stupid and was going to do anything to disrupt it.
Immediately after his post, Kabbes comes in and keeps the same tennis hijack that took over, or replaced, the silo bitch fest.
It was obvious where it was headed.
And all of this, mind you, was only six or seven posts into the thread, and about nine posts before any reply from a mod.
Hey, in the silo thread? I can damn well see your points on hijacking it. Sorta. Yeah, it was over, or it was coming to an end. I think it’s a silly way to end a thread, but not so much that I jumped in that thread to complain about it.
I jumped in this one only a few posts after the posts I just pointed out. It’s back there for all to see on page one. I jumped in when the discussion seemed to be discussing the value of that kind of hijack.
I disagreed. My disagreement, and the discussion, seemed doomed for “I like grass courts!” “Yippee! Me Too” posts, but I tried and I continued to make my point.
I’ll admit that it enraged the fuck out of me at the time. It was basically saying to me, or at least how I took it was, “Fuck you Chris! Ha Ha Ha! This thread is stupid and nyuk nyuk, we’re not going to talk about it. Ha Ha.”
Damn straight I got mad. I bet you’d get pissed had this been a thread you were trying to follow and were interested in it’s resolution.
So then, in-between a shitload of “Boy that must hurt to have a splinter” were some haphazard posts basically telling me to get used to this kind of hijack and why it was right.
Sorry, but it was damn hard, and still is frankly, to sit back in that time and say, “You know guys, this is damn funny! I haven’t seen this kind of wit in ages! Tee hee. Ah, fuck the value of hijacks like that.”
That’s how I felt about the whole thing then. Had this kind of hijack not started so early in the then, when the main thrust of the question seemed open, I doubt I’d have gotten this angry over it.
Maybe it would have been more obvious then that the thread had fizzled, but it didn’t seem that way, at that time, to me.
Thus, my continued presence and continued bitching about my disagreement.
If any of that isn’t clear to you at all, I doubt I can word it any better for you in subsequent posts. That’s the best can do at four in the morning.
I guess you can count me as one. I was hoping to get insights into the moderator-member relationships as well as the rules and why they exist. Oh well…
Chris, as stated before (repeatedly) I never tried to kill any thread, and as I’m not a moderator I’d like to know how I could.
I made a thread that was intended, as humourously as possible, to show my opinion about this topic in relation to the silo thread. Some people appeared to like the joke. You (and others I’m sure) didn’t. Such is the nature of humour.
To date, the only person to make sweeping statements on what is fitting content for a post is you. Yet you accuse me of being presumptuous, and of trying to dictate other peoples arguments.
And you know, that strikes me as pretty funny too.
I stay out of the BBQ Pit as much as possible, but since board policy questions are discussed here, it’s not a good idea to avoid it completely. And when petty personality disputes are added to a policy thread, it makes it hard to find the wheat – for example, Alphagene’s policy comment, which was around the 42nd posted if I counted right – amongst the chaff of the glurge of people who apparantly think that posting random tennis statements is in some form useful, rather than just harassment.
If you don’t like someone, why not just start another thread, which can be more easily ignored, and not create obstacles to finding actually important information in a policy thread.
First and foremost… Jesus! Don’t you people sleep!?!
Now then,
Easy. You hijack it so badly that it’s bound to head off in another direction. A direction that makes any kind of serious discussion impossible, or at least damn difficult to follow.
That may not have been your intent, but I sure read it that way.
When I find that content condescending, rude, and childish, then yeah, I’ll say something. It may not be right or popular, but yeah, I’ll say something.
Sleep? It’s 10 to 11 in the morning here!
I’m sorry Chris - but one two-line post cannot in itself derail anything. It’s a between-the-lines comment on the argument. It’s actually even on-topic, strictly speaking, since it is a satirical comment not an intentional hijack.
It takes other posters - and lots of 'em - to successfully pull it away from the OP. And even that can’t be done if there are those actually interested in addressing the OP.
I’m sorry you didn’t see the humour in the situation. I’m also sorry that you couldn’t see the post for what it really was and read between the lines. And I’m a little surprised you thought the horse had any life still in it anyway.
But I think even this hijack-hijack is fairly dead now anyway. Except to express mild surprise that after two years and almost 1000 posts, whiteho still didn’t know that posting illegal material was a no-no! Hell, I guessed that would be the case before I even signed on. And then there’s more than enough examples out there.
But as you were.
pan
Timezones. Ain’t the net great - you’re currently arguing with someone who in the old days you’d never have met. Of course, you may not see that as such a good thing.
And you were the one labelling me “presumptious”? On a few occasions now people have pointed out what was behind the non sequiturs - humour, and an attempt to draw a parallel. Perhaps you should stop attributing any other meanings to them?
Good for you, an admirable policy. So why are you so keen on trying to dictate to me what I should say?
If the Straight Dope was centered in Laos, circa 1968.
This is the pit. My understanding of the pit is that people are allowed to post things that are condescending, rude and childish. And you’re allowed to respond to them in whatever manner you see fit.
Course, that’s only my understanding…
OK…I’m going to try to bring this back to its original subject, because I would like to understand what happened. I’m sure that certain parties will think it’s moderator bashing and continue the hijack. But, I really just want to understand this.
My main question is what did Doctor Goo Fee do that could have cost him his posting privileges?
His offenses appear to be:
a) Starting a thread about obtaining pot.
b) Not understanding why he shouldn’t start such a thread.
c) Not knowing where the forum rules are located.
d) Not understanding why there would be such a rule.
e) Posting a query about b-d in an improper place.
f) Being a smartass.
The following explanation was given:
This would appear to indicate that b through e were the critical offenses. So, is that why his privileges hung in the balance? Or, was it just a misunderstanding? Or, some other reason I missed?
So, If I was to re-hijack this thread to talk about mod-powertrips, would that be an eloquent summary on what the thread has now become? 
You see Cnote, Gary didnt hijack the thread because he didnt like what was in it, he was trying to draw a parallel to a similar thread that ended up as a giant bitchfest.
So, to quote Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrells
*Chill, Winston *
**Doctor Goo Fee ** was directed to contact the administrator. He’d opened a thread about how to do something illegal. It was closed, by an administrator who said "Please do not ask how to break the law, even for only “intellectual exercise”, on the Straight Dope Message Board. " that seemed pretty crystal clear. Apparently Doctor Goo Fee didn’t understand and instead of emailing the admin for a clarification (the preferred method) they chose to open yet another thread (in the wrong forum as well) to ask “why did ya do that” . That, too was closed, with a specific directive to the poster to contact the administration.
Sounds to me like they wanted him to contact the administration.
Simply put? Goof’s response to his thread closing indicates that he was shocked that we dared close his thread. It wasn’t a neutral request for clarification of the board rules, which he should have read upon registering for the board:
He’s not banned so obviously we feel he hasn’t done anything ban-worthy. However, people who consistently get overly dramatic about thread closings tend not to be long for this board.
Sometimes they are banned for their subsequent pattern of self-centered whinery. Sometimes they post a lengthy and unintentionally amusing Fuck You treatise and swear off the board. Sometimes they loosen up and realize that his MB is better than any other out there. So they use their smart-ass attitude for good rather than for evil. And we all live happily ever after.
Time will tell how Goof chooses to act.
Exactly. Did I miss the memo that said we can’t comment when we think a thread is stupid? That must have been the same memo that dictated the post format that must be used.
A hijack isn’t going to kill a thread if there are enough interested people to keep the OP going. Obviously, there was only. . . . um. . . . . you? You might want to consider untwisting your underpants before you turn blue. Really.
Did you read the agreement when you joined? Have you looked around a bit? Have you asked questions? Do you realize all the mods have e-mail addresses?
What I find rude and condescending is your attempt to tell others what they should and should not write. If me, Gary, or even you want to state our disdain for a certain topic, we can either be very specific and make point by point statements (which becomes tedious) or we can hijack or even make a :rolleyes: face. They are get the point across and personally I think the hijack and :rolleyes: says an awful lot. Just because you don’t understand this doesn’t mean we should all stop doing it.
Did you bother reading the thread? How much clearer can it be?
I don’t know how I got dragged into this (I haven’t seen the thread by Doctor GooFee), but I have emailed Manhattan asking him to close my cigarette thread. I didn’t mean to come off as asking “explicitly” asking where one would sell stolen goods; rather, I was curious as to whether people were selling them or keeping them for personal use.
I had this picture in my head of a guy in an alley with a raincoat saying, “Psst, buddy, wanna buy a carton of smokes?”
I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.
Chris-
In almost every Pit thread, there is usually at least one post showing that someone thinks that the topic being discussed is stupid. Just about every one. What’s the difference between those dissenting posts and the one in this thread?
Easy. People agreed with this one.
They could have just ignored Gary’s post. Really. If the conversation had been that easy, say, if Dr. Goo Fee had actually been banned, then everyone would have looked over Gary’s post for what it was: a singular expression of annoyance. It was only the fact that pretty much everybody else shared Gary’s view that caused the thread to be hijacked.
If you’re going to claim that we’re not allowed to post “rude, childish” stuff, then you should go through to every Pit thread where anyone has said, in essence, “this is stupid,” and yell at them, too. Just because Gary made his post in the form of clever satire which you don’t think is funny is no reason for his post to be treated differently.
Would you rather that he had just posted “Dudes, we went through this last week. Dudes. Stop.”? I wouldn’t. I think that his way of doing it was much funnier, and got his point across much better. So get down off your soapbox, and face it: this thread got hijacked because its OP wasn’t strong enough to keep it going, and it was something that we’d all seen before.
But, it seems that THIS argument, which is also a hijack, mind you, has gotten pretty old. We’re all just shouting past each other. Kinda reminds me of a recent thread.
So, How bout that All-Star Game?
So…when are Cnote and Gary getting married?
And whatever happened to the splinter in that persons finger???