# What to do about hijacks? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 9, 2023, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509 "2023-02-09T04:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/21 "2023-02-10T03:56:39Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Well, because a message board is not an informal party conversation. If we wanted to just have a rambling, free-range discussion, we could have one big wandering thread instead of dividing them up into individual forums and threads. In other words, Discord. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/22 "2023-02-10T11:12:09Z")
A hijack means different things to different people. Someone opining about the same subject in a breaking news thread is not the same sort of hijack as Steve’s chiropracty in a conversation about Bob’s yard activities. i.e. Velocity just got banned from the Ukraine War thread for wondering about American jets doing covert bombing runs on Russian positions. Are we supposed to be discussing Ukraine or is that thread meant to be a news aggregator? > [@Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 2)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/2109): > > > **hid by mod, hijack** > > > > Wonder how difficult it would be for the US to chip in with a few covert airstrikes. A B-2 that dropped a few bombs here and there on Russian positions (no more than 30 miles from Ukrainian front lines) might be perceived as being the doing of Ukrainian drones, rocket artillery or whatnot, but make a valuable little bit of contribution to the war effort. For clarification, I’m not debating the politics of it, but just asking about the technological feasibility of it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/23 "2023-02-10T11:23:54Z")
For the record, that was at least the 5th time in that thread he was noted for being off topic/hijacking posts. He was not thread banned for 1 post. There were more in part one of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/24 "2023-02-10T11:37:31Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Are we supposed to be discussing Ukraine or is that thread meant to be a news aggregator? That’s a breaking news thread (note the breaking news tag), so breaking news rules apply. Obviously we allow some discussion about what’s going on in the news, but the thread is not a general discussion about the Ukraine invasion. Speculation about a U.S. airstrike is pretty far off-topic for a breaking news thread. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/25 "2023-02-10T11:39:27Z")
I’m going to respectfully disagree, in a way that won’t get me banned from **this** thread. For me to hijack the omnibus-discussion Ukraine thread would have been if I posted a comment like, _“Which flavor of ice cream do you prefer, strawberry or chocolate?”_ What I posted was entirely relevant to Ukraine, and was a Ukraine-related comment - as were all my previous comments that What Exit had warned me for as well. Not once did I ever post a comment in that thread that didn’t have something to do with Ukraine. And before the mods say, “It wasn’t a comment that contained a link about a news development” - 95% of comments in that thread weren’t either. But it’s okay, I’ll just wait for the next Ukraine-war thread, which will probably start in a few months. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/26 "2023-02-10T11:50:08Z")
**No** , you are banned from the the successor threads also. You are welcome to post in the other Ukraine invasion threads though. But not the Breaking News ones. That was at least the 5th time you made off-topic/hijacking posts in the second thread alone. I didn’t check the first one. > [@Velocity](#): > > And before the mods say, “It wasn’t a comment that contained a link about a news development” - 95% of comments in that thread weren’t either. And no, you don’t get to set up a strawman rule to say you didn’t violate it so your posts were OK. * * * I will add I sympathize with your positions in most of those posts, but they are off-topic for the thread in question. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/27 "2023-02-10T12:07:37Z")
IMO a permanent thread-ban (including subsequent threads!) for what seems to me to be relatively minor hijacks by Velocity is overkill. Why not a 1 week, or 1 month threadban? He’s not trying to derail the conversation (it seems clear to me), he just gets sidetracked by related issues sometimes. Specifically, speculation outside the specifics of the breaking news of the war. Since he’s been a good contributor to the topic outside of those hijacks, I think the action should be less severe. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/28 "2023-02-10T12:22:39Z")
I know over the two threads, I’ve had to hide/staff note his posts at least 8 times now. He hasn’t stopped. A one week or one month thread suspension is unlikely to help. This last one he even seemed to realize what he was posting was off-topic and he did so anyway. > [@Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 2)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-2/973972/2109): > > For clarification, I’m not debating the politics of it, but just asking about the technological feasibility of it. This does not make it less of a hijack and off-topic post. There are dozens of threads on the Ukraine invasion and he could start a new one. It might even be interesting. How often do I have to ask him to stop going off-topic in one thread? * * * Please note, another poster was asked to stop a few times early in the first thread and he has done so and has been contributing on-topic additions consistently. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/29 "2023-02-10T12:53:08Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > the thread is not a general discussion about the Ukraine invasion. It’s the closest thing we have to one. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > I’ve had to hide/staff note his posts at least 8 times now. “Had to” is a bit of an overstatement. You chose to. All eight times those mod notes annoyed the shit out of me as derailing a potentially interesting and relevant tangent. (Pretty much every mod “stop hijacking” post in any thread comes across as heavy-handed to me and I find them annoying as shit.) > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Please note, another poster was asked to stop a few times early in the first thread and he has done so and has been contributing on-topic additions consistently. And we’ll never know what interesting tangents we have all missed out on as a consequence. Count me firmly in the @Spice_Weasel camp. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/30 "2023-02-10T13:01:25Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > As I see it, there are two problems with lengthy hijacks. One is the obvious distraction from the topic of the thread, and the annoyance, commented on by me and many others, of coming back to the thread only to find a bunch of irrelevant posts. > > I recognized the other problem while reading the anthem hijack: it was interesting and worthy of discussion. But there it was in an unrelated thread where it was a) annoying people not interested in it, and b) not being seen by at least some people who might have been interested but didn’t know it was there. And this is why, in the more rambly forums i moderate, I’m happy to move lengthy digressions that might be of general interest to a new thread with a descriptive title. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/31 "2023-02-10T13:02:24Z")
My assumption is that those usually die on the vine, but it’s only an assumption. Is there a successful one you could link us to demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/32 "2023-02-10T13:03:12Z")
Just to clarify, there are currently **196** threads on the [ukraine-invasion](https://boards.straightdope.com/tag/ukraine-invasion). This was easy to check from the [tags page](https://boards.straightdope.com/tags). Only one is being tightly moderated. I think this might just discount your argument a little in this case. I’m pretty sure we’ve mentioned more than once that is you want to start a new related topic you can link to it from the news thread. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/33 "2023-02-10T13:04:04Z")
Could you link me to the Ukraine general discussion thread? Me just not knowing about it is 100% possible. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/34 "2023-02-10T13:04:24Z")
No, both because i haven’t done it much in this discussion board and because that’s not the sort of thing i keep track of. But I’ve seen it work on other message boards, and I’d like to experiment and see if it works here. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/35 "2023-02-10T13:04:36Z")
Fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/36 "2023-02-10T13:08:17Z")
Decide if it is going to be political in nature, general talk or pit worthy. Then look through the list from the tags and choose one. Or just start a new one in the appropriate forum and actually name it “Ukraine general discussion thread”. Set some minimal parameters. I would recommend P&E or the Pit, but that’s me. Otherwise when posts get political in MPSIMS, they should in theory be moderated and I don’t wish that on @puzzlegal. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/37 "2023-02-10T13:09:26Z")
Thanks! I agree that the Ukraine war general discussion thread belongs in p&e or the pit, and not in IMHO or MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/38 "2023-02-10T13:10:13Z")
Honestly, @What_Exit, clicking that tags list to see all the Ukraine threads is really not doing great things for your argument. It looks to me like they all died on the vine, and that we do not in fact have a general Ukraine discussion thread. My hypothesis as to why we do not have one is because it doesn’t make sense to run two threads in tandem like that, where one thread has the current events and the other thread has the discussion of those current events. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/39 "2023-02-10T13:11:11Z")
If so, then start one. It will live or die by interest of other posters, not the mods. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509/40 "2023-02-10T13:11:45Z")
And this is why these mod actions aggravate me. They stifle discussion. I’m much too lazy to start such a thread, though I would happily participate in an existing one. Or maybe not. As I said, it’s weird and awkward to have two different threads for a single discussion. EDIT: I originally wrote “aggravate me so much”, but thinking more about it, it’s really more like it barely aggravates me. The “so much” part was pretty strongly overstated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-about-hijacks/979509.md?page=3)