Liberal, looking at that “stores that rearrange themselves” thread, I think I see some of the reason that some of your posts tend to drag threads away from their topics.
The way I read that thread, and the way that most of the other posters appeared to view it based on their posts, was that it was about bitching about (or possibly defending) stores that rearrange their merchandise. It wasn’t about politics, it was a gripe session. As part of the griping, in post 15, his third post in the threadcommasense made a throw-away line about hating capitalists.
I, and I believe most people, didn’t see that line as an invitation to discuss the relative merits of various politico-economic systems, but just a disgusted line in a bitch about the thing that pissed him off that day. Indeed, commasense confirmed that in his response to you in post 24.
In post 19, however, you took that throw-away about capitalists as a serious comment, and undertook to defend the capitalist system. In response, commasense clarified in post 24 that he wasn’t interested in a political debate and indeed was quite happy in a capitalist system. You shot back in post 31, angrily suggesting his comment was “off-topic bullshit” and calling him a “sanctimonious twat.”
The reason that the problem developed, in my opinion, is that you misjudged the thrust of the thread, and made a post outside that general area of thrust. Admittedly, commasense brought up capitalism as a topic, but that wasn’t what the thread was really about. When commasense pointed out that he didn’t intend to introduce capitalism as the general topic of discussion, you got frustrated. So far, the thread has stayed on the main topic, rearrangements of store merchandise, with your comment on a marginally related topic not having drawn much discussion.
All too often, however, you make comments about topics that are somewhat connected with the topic or posts of a thread, but have nothing to do with the direction that the prior posters (and particularly the OP) seem to be taking the thread. Quite frequently, this shifts the direction of the thread either to the point you raised, or more annoyingly, to a discussion of whether your post was appropriate in the thread.
The thread linked in the OP is a good example of this. Before you were involved, the posters were having a Cafe Society discussion of the humor and presentation of the Daily Show. Your post number 21 vividly introduced the, admittedly related, topic of the politics of the Daily Show. Although a discussion of the politics of the Daily Show can be an interesting topic (for those who aren’t sick to death of such discussions), and might perhaps be appropriate for Cafe Society, that wasn’t what all of the previous posters were having. Ultimately, this derailed the thread and took it (via a temporary lockdown) from Cafe Society to Great Debates, which is what many of the earlier posters wished to avoid.
In both of those cases, and numerous others, you saw issues that you wished to discuss that touched on but were outside what the other posters were discussing. Rather than understanding the thrust of where the other posters were going and confining your posts to the general direction of the thread – or starting a new thread if you felt the need to bring in your area – you posted an eye-catching post to bring the conversation to your point. Frequently, your comments are vibrant enough that the discussion quickly shifts to your point, or you yourself.
Although there is nothing that requires threads to go where the early posters want, and hijacks have caused some of the most hilarious moments here on the boards, it seems a basic rule of politeness to respect the subject and thrust of a thread that is going along nicely. When someone repeatedly posts comments that change the direction of a thread (especially if those comments are on a limited range of subjects), people start getting frustrated.
Liberal, I don’t know whether you see as I do that quite a few of your posts tend not to fall in the general parameters of threads established by the early posters, and how disruptive that can be. Although there is no rule requiring us to post along the lines that the prior posters have established, repeatedly and intentionally pulling threads in new directions is, in my view, discourteous at the least.
If you do not see how disruptive some of your posts can be and why they seem to derail threads, I would suggest you look harder at where posters seem to be going before you post, and when your comments seem to draw fire, ask yourself whether they they were a necessary digression from the prior discussion, or could have been more profitably been made elsewhere (or not at all).
Now, even when I’m embroiled in intense debates, it doesn’t become this all-consuming THING in my life like it did before, because I know I can walk away from it if need be. I don’t post because I have to, I post because I like to, and it’s a much more pleasant experience.