Changes to Hijacking Rules in the Politics and Elections Forum

Aspenglow
Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:59:47 +0000
About This Message Board

The P&E moderator staff are announcing a change to our rules with respect to hijacking.

First, some background:

The more stringent current hijacking rules came into existence in 2020, largely authored by Jonathan Chance. Unfortunately, Jonathan died shortly after implementing these rules, and we didn’t really get to see his intended moderation for them. We’ve done the best we can with the rules as we understand them.

Still, we’re fielding an increasing number of complaints in ATMB about our moderation of thread hijacks. It’s an inexact process, obviously. But the complaints are wearing and take up a lot of time. If we can do something to ameliorate them, we think it would make a good change. So we’ve been discussing various ideas and ways to loosen the hijacking rules for posters who strenuously object to them, without forcing the majority of posters who prefer current hijack moderation to endure them. Hopefully this proposed change will make posting more comfortable for everyone.

None of us disagree with the hijacking rules as they are currently written and believe they serve an important purpose. But we recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach is difficult for some.

Here is a brief outline of the new rules:

We’re going to allow posters to designate their thread as “Hijacks Tolerated” (HT) if they wish. For posters choosing to start “Hijacks Tolerated” (HT) threads, they must be clearly noted as such in both the title and the OP. No exceptions.

This change will pertain only to P&E, and no other forum.

Once a thread has started, we will not allow it to be recharacterized. If it starts as an HT thread, it stays an HT thread, and vice versa.

We will continue to not permit omnibus threads, so if a hijack strays for too long away from the original topic, the thread will be closed. We understand this goes against the way things are currently done, but we don’t know another way to address threads that just go on and on with no purpose.

Threads will either be moderated as usual or they will be fully unmoderated for hijacks, with no in-betweens. We will dismiss flags thrown for hijacks in HT threads, with a reminder to check thread titles for the HT designation.

HT threads will still be moderated for other transgressions, as per the existing P&E rules. As a specific example our rules remain unchanged on Threadshitting and these will be moderated at our discretion. We are aware that there can be overlaps with certain types of hijacks, so be extra mindful of the gap between honest disagreement with the OP and posting to disparage the topic or poster. Be aware that we never encourage posters to deliberately take threads off topic, whether HT-designated or otherwise.

There may be simultaneous threads on the same topic, one HT and one non-HT, and those are ok. You may post in one or the other or both, as you choose.

We will not move posts between HT and non-HT threads once they are posted. Posters need to make sure they are posting in the thread of their preference.

We may or may not adopt this approach on a permanent basis. For now, we just want to see how it goes. We offer this option to let posters speak freely in P&E without concerns about going off topic if they choose and hope to create a more welcoming environment for all.

We’re starting this in ATMB to allow posters to ask questions and comment. We want this to be a success, so your constructive criticisms are welcome.

27 posts - 10 participants