# Thread the needle \[Definition of threadshitting\] **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 4, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952 "2017-10-04T14:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/21 "2017-10-04T20:35:15Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I have read the FAQ…but I have been lurking around in old threads and posts, **the use of hate speech and cut-downs and general nastiness seems a bit overlooked in some threads and heavily moderated in some.** So I was just trying to get a clearer picture of what is acceptable. I have personally been picked-on for punctuation infractions, which I find is kind of a cheap shot. Partly caused by non-reporting of possible rule violations. The mods don’t (and can’t) read every post in every thread. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/22 "2017-10-04T20:47:33Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I have read the FAQ…but I have been lurking around in old threads and posts, the use of hate speech and cut-downs and general nastiness seems a bit overlooked in some threads and heavily moderated in some. The different forums have their own rules and cultures. A good joke will usually be allowed to stand if it’s really funny - but you shouldn’t attempt it until you’ve got the feel for the room. In re threadshitting - to follow your example, you shouldn’t barge into someone else’s thread and slag all over the OP, but you’re always free to start your own thread and say, for example, “I think Tom Petty’s overrated and here are the reasons why.” > [@](#): > > So I was just trying to get a clearer picture of what is acceptable. I have personally been picked-on for punctuation infractions, which I find is kind of a cheap shot. Nope. That’s what I mean I about lurking until you have a feel for board culture. You weren’t picked on. People, in the Pit, took you task for your crap writing habits. The Pit is the proper place for taking each other to task and the Board Culture is to use correct, standard, English. That was all perfectly within bounds. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/23 "2017-10-04T21:01:16Z")
What’s this thread about? Nevermind. I don’t care and am not gonna even bother reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/24 "2017-10-04T21:01:40Z")
(That’s a good example of threadshitting) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/25 "2017-10-04T21:22:45Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > The different forums have their own rules and cultures. … This is important enough to bear repeating. Each forum is different. Formally there is one set of rules for the board as a whole and a deliberately relaxed subset of them for the Pit. Informally, each forum has a distinct tone or culture. The Pit stands out on the one extreme as high on emotion and backbiting. GQ stands at the other extreme and at its limit case reads pretty much like Wikipedia. Calm and impersonal. The others are somewhere in the middle. But each is different about their tone, in-jokes, etc. Being a little out of tune with the crowd is usually fine. But more than one person has gotten modded for posting something into a thread they thought was in Forum X that was actually in Forum Y. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/26 "2017-10-04T21:33:56Z")
Oh…okay. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/27 "2017-10-04T21:48:28Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I have personally been picked-on for punctuation infractions, which I find is kind of a cheap shot. Oh, yeah. **Everybody** gets that. This board has a LOT of people who range from “fussy about details” to outright pedants. Every poster gets nitpicked at some point. feel Free to **ignore it** , unless it’s a Mod saying “that sort of grammar isn’t allowed here”. ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/28 "2017-10-04T21:57:16Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > What’s this thread about? Nevermind. I don’t care and am not gonna even bother reading it. Reported. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/29 "2017-10-04T22:24:19Z")
[An earlier discussion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=114333) of threadshitting. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/30 "2017-10-04T23:07:51Z")
Nice! ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/31 "2017-10-05T00:35:06Z")
> [@dstarfire](#): > > Oh, yeah. **Everybody** gets that. This board has a LOT of people who range from “fussy about details” to outright pedants. Every poster gets nitpicked at some point. feel Free to **ignore it** , unless it’s a Mod saying “that sort of grammar isn’t allowed here”. The poster in question was using the same abundance of ellipses instead of periods that **billfish** /\*\*watchwolf \*\*has been doing. It’s not a style we need to see more of. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/32 "2017-10-05T01:29:08Z")
That is so unfair. What the hell is wrong with ellipses, except maybe you don’t like this other poster very much. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/33 "2017-10-05T01:32:36Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > That is so unfair. What the hell is wrong with ellipses, except you don’t like this other poster very much. Because sentences with periods are easier to read. Not picking on you personally, but with sentences with fragments and many ellipses, it’s hard to tell where one thought leaves off and the next one begins. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/34 "2017-10-05T01:52:15Z")
Ok ok ok, I get it. I have been reading since I was 4 years old and I don’t ever recall being that upset about punctuation or lack-there-of, that people seem to get on this message board. In fact I come from a long line of poets and poetry lovers and punctuation is used rather differently. So bear with me on this point, til I catch up! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/35 "2017-10-05T02:36:22Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ok ok ok, I get it. I have been reading since I was 4 years old and I don’t ever recall being that upset about punctuation or lack-there-of, that people seem to get on this message board. In fact I come from a long line of poets and poetry lovers and punctuation is used rather differently. So bear with me on this point, til I catch up! When you post poetry, no one will complain about your punctuation. You persist in posting prose, a totally different animal. Print prose has been subject to 500 years of natural selection to ensure maximal ease and speed of reading and comprehension. You subvert that at your own peril. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/36 "2017-10-05T03:01:45Z")
I got it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/37 "2017-10-05T10:06:25Z")
Plus…do you want…everybody to read…every one of your posts…in the mental voice…of William Shatner? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/38 "2017-10-05T16:36:13Z")
Sounds…fun…to me! I understand what is needed or wanted, As I’ve said before, I am highly teachable. I will try to punctuate correctly and use less ellipses. Thx for your input! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/39 "2017-10-05T18:45:14Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > That is so unfair. What the hell is wrong with ellipses, except maybe you don’t like this other poster very much. Nothing wrong with them at all when used correctly and in the right context. If I remember correctly, last week in a different thread Colibri explained this to you quite clearly and courteously, and you said you got the message. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-the-needle-definition-of-threadshitting/797952/40 "2017-10-05T19:35:30Z")
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