If it’s of any significance, the OP of the example thread did once damn me to hell.
And in IMHO, too! :eek: :eek: :eek:
I agree wholeheartedly, it is often key to keeping a thread civil to inject a little humour. If wiseasserry is out of place it gets ignored, else it brings a smile and reduces tension that would really derail a Great Debate into a shouting match.
The gum of all religion is the commandment ‘Thou shall not disfigure the sole.’
[Channelling OP]
Oh, yeah! That reminds me! No non sequiters either, damnit!
[/Channelling OP]
“Yes, so it appears that the fiscal earnings increased by roughly 5.3% over the last quarter, possibly due to the new regulatory…”
“Hey, did you hear the one about Michael Jackson and Terry Schaivo?”
“YOU MOTHERFUCKING BASTARD!!! I’LL KILL YOU!!! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!”
You must be visiting a different great debates than the one I’m familiar with. At any given moment, there are no more than 4 people participating who even capable of adding anything of substance; and at most 2 active topics worthy of discussion. Comedians are the catfish of this little ecosystem. If they weren’t scavenging up the offal, the whole pond would be muck.
I dunno. It seemed pretty obvious, especially since I handed him the straight line on a silver platter.
And those are the ones making jokes.
I once had a debate judge laughing so hard that she almost fell out of her chair. We still lost the round, though.
See Schwa, in post #38 I totally tried to hijack and was completely ignored. People were more interested in staying on topic by explaining what a tool you are. Nobody took the bait. Proves my point, if the thread has merit it will not be hijacked, even if a few people try to do it.
A hijack is only possible if no one is interested in the OP. Don’t want your threads hijacked? Write better OPs. If no one is talking about you topic, it’s cause no one cares about your topic. If people do care about your topic, they’ll post about it, regardless of jokes or other digressions.
I’ve never seen this happen. Cite?
Those belong in IMHO. 
If you are not interested in the OP, fine.Then either post in some other thread, or start one yourself. Hijacking is rude, and your opinion- although valid- doesn’t mean that everyone else thinks that the thread isn’t interesting. It is certain however, that a badly enough hijacked thread will prove to be uninteresting to those who might have found the original OP to be fascinating. What makes **YOU **the arbiter of how interesting a thread is to the entire SDMB? :rolleyes:
Shut up, dropzone.
My irony meter just exploded. Again. I’ve got to remember to turn it off before getting on the SDMB.
You call that a hijack? This is a hijack…
“OK everybody, we’re taking this thread to Cuba or I’m blowing up the hamster wheel and everybody with it!”
For a pound, I won’t hijack this thread to Luton.
We could ask the same thing of You.
And if there are people who think the thread is interesting, they’ll post to it, regardless of what I have to say.
Once again, cite? You keep saying this, but I’ve never seen any evidence of it. Where’s your proof for this claim?
Precisely the same thing that makes you the arbiter of what constitutes an acceptable post in a GD thread.
Nonsense. It is very possible, in fact not uncommon - for a member to start a thread that will interest only a tiny % of the posters here. But that thread may be of intense interest to those few. And, there is nothing wrong at all with starting a thread that will have only a very few interested in it. To then come by, and find that you*, oh god and arbiter of all that can possibly be interesting on the SDMB :rolleyes: finds that that thread isn’t interesting to you- still doesn’t give you the right to come in, hijack it, and be a jerk. It is certainly NOT “being a jerk” to start a limited interest thread. But it can “being a jerk” to hijack a thread. Dudes have been warned for it. YMMV of course, there is no specific “don’t hijack” rule that apllies to the entire SDMB.
*the generic & impersonal “you”