I’m trying to use the Template more often when I mention off-topic or hijacking in a thread.
Click the Gear button, Click Insert Template, Click the clipboard button directly to the right of “reply as linked topic”
It helps get our message out. I figure if we repeat it enough, it is a good way to try and get people to think about hijacks. I put this one in a Detail Spoiler to not make this post too big.
If you are responding to something in a thread that is basically off-topic or likely to lead to a hijack, try this
How to Reply as a linked Topic:
Click Reply, in the upper left corner of the reply window is the reply type button, looks like a curving arrow point to the right.
Choose Reply as linked topic and it starts a new thread. As an example, you can choose GD, IMHO or The Pit for it.
I think one problem with “just create a new thread” is that, by the time it’s clear that a new thread should be made, there will already be a few posts that were off topic. And thus people will be reluctant to try and move the conversation somewhere else, hoping others will follow. It’s easier to continue a conversation than to start one.
The other is that there is just inherently more friction in creating a new thread, since now it’s “my thread” instead of me just commenting on what other people are saying. That’s why I rarely start new threads.
I don’t know how to overcome these two points of friction.
(oops, sorry. I replied to the wrong person. It’s annoying that I can’t fix that in editing.)
Whether you perceive it as a problem or not, it’s a rule. We’re tasked with enforcing those.
Posters have said they don’t want to receive warnings for hijacking. We’re trying to avoid doing this, but we don’t have a lot of tools besides mod notes and warnings.
I’ve often used self-deprecating humor, but it doesn’t seem to be working with this concern. At all.
I had a poster castigate me in a PM the other day because we hadn’t stepped in quick enough to moderate a significant hijack in a thread. It happened to be a day when no P&E mods were available. By the time I got to it, there were dozens of hijacked posts. It was a lot of work to unsnarl.
Is asking posters to be mindful of the thread they’re posting in really so much to ask?
Why don’t you try it and see? Starting a new thread makes it easier for us to move existing posts.
I agree with all of that. It’s easy to make mistakes and a mod-note and post move is all that’s needed. (I’m not a fan of warnings for this sort of thing.)
But this messageboard is only as good as its posts. Having focused topics makes threads easier to read and to participate in. And staying on topic is as simple as checking what thread you’re in. We should all be in the habit of doing that.
I’ll note that Pit threads do not have hijack rules.
In this case, the first post was clearly off-topic and never should have been posted in the thread in question. If they wanted to jump off the thread, they can use the method I typed up and pasted in. Otherwise, just start a new thread already.
New threads are generally good. Might be a few exceptions, I feel like at one point we had 6 gun debate threads at the same time and most were overlapping and just recently with Trump being shot, I think I paused a thread for 12 hours as it was too much to moderate.
MPSIMS barely has them either. You have to go really off-topic for a moderator to step in.
That’s a hard one. I’m all for ending hijacks, although it’s just human nature to take a conversation along its natural meandering course and not realize it’s off-topic.
Why didn’t anyone bother to simply post, “hey guys, wrong thread, this is a hijack”? Since the rules got tightened up, people posting “this is a hijack” has been very effective in reminding people.
It is fricking annoying to open a post to read about one thing, and find it completely taken over by something not remotely related to it.
You don’t need to be ashamed, but you do need to be aware that you (all of you, not just Dinsdale) were needlessly making the SDMB experience less pleasant for others.
Or you could just add a post to the thread reminding people they’re in the wrong thread. Nobody intended to make it fricking annoying for you. These things happen.
I greatly appreciate the high quality of and the sheer quantity of work moderators do around here, but it’s entirely in the hands of the board administration. There really needs to be more of you, because the alternative of fewer posters and posts is far worse.
I would mention we’re in the Silly Season now when P&E threads in particular run to hundreds a day because discussions are fraught and lively. It will cool off a little after the election, hopefully.
I’ll just add, we don’t monitor all threads all the time. We rely on flags to catch things early, if possible.
You’re fighting against human nature. If the first person making the hijack doesn’t actually realize they’ve done it, the next person just doesn’t catch it either. The big problem is the vast number of threads on nearly the same subject. It’s hard enough avoiding hijacks anyways, but right now the thread topics all mush together.
When does a poster saying something is a hijack turn into junior modding (if that is the right expression)? Because that is not allowed either, is it?
FTR: I have started a couple of new threads recently with this fancy tool that Discourse offers as has been explained here already, both by Aspenglow and What_Exit. It is really easy and convenient, I agree. My fear when doing so is that this can lead to thread inflation, where after some spin-offs there are several threads that overlap and I don’t know in which one to post when I want to say something I feel relevant. Copy&paste the same reply to different threads cannot be the solution either. Right now I tend to err on the side of branching off too often, and if that is the consensus, I will be glad to keep on doing it. I just feel that this is not the last word on the matter.
ETA: ninja’d. Again. Oh, well, proves I have a point, I guess.
I do wish we could modify the junior-modding attitude bit in a good way. Some polite notes like “this is off-topic” should be fine, but I’ve seen those and other posters snap back at them and flags generated.
I’m assuming you are capable of perceiving how the comment above might be received differently than “Shame on you.”
I assume (hope) I am not the only person who approaches these boards with somewhat less attention that I do - say - my work. To a large extent, these boards serve as a pleasant diversion. I think it a somewhat futile effort to expect every poster to ensure that their every post comports with whatever specific rules have been devised as to what is or isn’t a hijck, what is or isn’t an insult, which is the specific forum, and what different rules apply to the different forums.
The main rule I keep in mind (and pretty infrequently violate IMO) is “Don’t be a jerk.” And I thought your comment “Shame on you” violated that rule. JMO.
I’m not seeing the boards as being anywhere near out of control such that they necessitate the aggressive moderation you suggest. But my perspective differs from yours. I’d suggest mods concentrate on the most eggregious violations, and let the others slide. Maybe with a comment.
But expect whatever level of compliance you wish to enforce.
I am grateful to posters who notice a thread is going off topic and make a comment like, “Whoops! I’d like to discuss this further, but it would be a hijack,” or even, “Should we start a new thread?” No need to get junior-moddy about it.
Sometimes threads go a little off topic because someone says something that requires further clarification. I don’t care about hijacks like that. Clarify and move back to the topic.
I don’t mind a little joking around. Make your funny and move back to the topic.
What puts a burr under my saddle are the hijacks that were the nexus for my shaming comment and this ensuing thread. The topic of that thread was clearly stated. It was completely ignored for more than 30 posts. I just don’t get that, I really don’t.
I think you misunderstood me. You are wanting users to perform a certain action. I’m pointing out reasons I think people may be reluctant to perform that action. The idea would be to discuss ways to overcome those friction points.
Or people could say I’m wrong. Or they could come up with their own friction points.
Regardless, I think you can’t resolve this issue if you can’t get to the bottom of it. Why are people reluctant to make new threads? Why does asking them to do so seem to make people frustrated?
As do I. Absolutely! And a lot of that work is tedious and sometimes the “reward” for it is complaints in ATMB. I know that I’ve sometimes been mildly critical of some moderation decisions myself, but like everyone else acting in good faith I’m just trying to nudge things in my little way to try to make this a better place.
I dunno about that. One of the most important things about moderation is consistency, and that’s best achieved with a small tight-knit team. Every mod, being human, has their own subjective POV. If you want fewer posters and fewer posts, unleash a hoard of moderators to micromanage everyone until there are more mods than posters, and then put up a sign for the last poster to leave to please turn out the lights. I don’t think that’s the goal here.
No, it certainly is not too much to ask. Hopefully some posters who get triggered to go off on tangents (hey, sometimes including me!) can learn to be appropriately mindful of that.
ETA: But, that said, this is a message board, not an encyclopedia. Some organic evolution of the topic should be permissible (the extent of which depends on the forum) while at the same time stopping truly off-topic conversations that tend to make the thread unreadable.
As I wrote, I see the danger of thread inflation. Instead of a thread with some diversions you get lots of very narrow threads and people loose sight of the greater picture. When I open a new thread and it does not get much traction I end up with a feeling like “if I had just made my slightly off-topic comment in the thread instead of starting a new one it would have petered out after X posts anyway and it would not have been a significant hijack, might have saved myself the trouble: better stay off-topic than off-thread”.
But for the time being I will keep on erring on the side of braching off too often rather than hijacking. Because those are the rules as they are being interpreted currently by the mods, altough I am not fully convinced.
I think that’s a valid concern. That’s why I allow for some hijacking and don’t get too fussed about it for 10-ish posts.
A lot of it depends on how narrow the subject is for a thread. Some threads allow for a lot of latitude. Others, not much at all. The thread that is the subject of this discussion is very narrow.
I’ll just say that interpreting and enforcing the “no hijacking” rule can be very challenging, to say nothing of defending one’s choices on how best to do that.
button, Click Insert Template, Click the clipboard 
button directly to the right of “reply as linked topic”
I don’t think that’s the goal here.