General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHijacking threads
It's probably happened to you. You put together an OP, and then one or two people almost immediately change the topic.
I've often started to read a thread that looks interesting, only to have a couple of DUers go off on a tangent. They are soon joined by others, and the original theme of the thread virtually disappears. I usually stop reading the thread and go elsewhere, which, in effect, turns the original poster into a victim.
It happened to me yesterday and I jumped in asking the hijackers to stop. I got a curt "No" in reply. Sigh.
There's really not much that can be done about it, but it really sucks. If only hijackers would realize they're own rudeness.
What do you do when it happens to you?
(I suspect that some thread hijackers may shortly jump into this thread out of pure dickishness.)
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Ingredients
6 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Salt and pepper
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch glass pie plate
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender. Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Cut into 8 wedges.
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)Eliminate the calories from the crust.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)That looks delicious.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Maple syrup.
So good.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Lochloosa
(16,068 posts)If you don't like bacon your wrong.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)A lot of people never read beyond the title of an OP, or read just the first sentence or two. That can lead to a thread wandering off in weird directions, I think.
Lots of threads wander away from the initial topic. I doubt it's intentional.
Cyrano
(15,057 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)thread hijacking.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Cyrano
(15,057 posts)Talk about an open invitation ...
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)ret5hd
(20,518 posts)"hijacking" you are minimalizing the trauma that real hijackers cause?
(there, i got my dickishness done for the day.)
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)I run a pretty active Facebook page (2,000 participants), and hijacked threads are common. You can't control where a discussion goes, and if you try, you will a) get bulldozed, and b) get rightly scolded for being too controlling over how other people choose to carry on a discussion.
Now, if a hijack happens on purpose because the person has an axe to grind and wants to deliberately derail the conversation, that's another matter. In my experience, however, hijackings happen organically more often than not, and there's nothing to be done about it.
People talk, is all.
Now, about that pipeline...
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Whats the page Will?
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Jazzgirl
(3,744 posts)Charlene is the first name.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)Do you know of someone?
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)snooper2
(30,151 posts)check this out!
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)People go off on tangents all the time. Every time they post off tangent, they are bumping your thread giving it visibility.
It could be intentional. It's a basic tactic to change a topic they don't like.
I wouldn't worry about it. Don't like where that last thread went, start a new one...
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Cyrano
(15,057 posts)There's a hotel in California that actually still has an elevator operator. I got on and said, "Okay, take this elevator to Cuba." He didn't get it.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)"Take me to Havana!"
Beat me to it.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)nice.
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)I'm probably guilty of it myself, but I know it's frustrating. There are certain tried and true techniques that are particularly annoying: attacking the person for even writing a thread they don't want to see; coming into make some personal snipe unrelated to the topic; or making the thread about something they decide is more important.
Cyrano
(15,057 posts)Stay warm up there in Minnesota.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)What do you expect?
I was the one who said no, because I didn't want to stop discussing with that person who was defending America's Wealthy.
Bryant
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)That tax thing sort of just happened.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)If you participate in enough discussions, you can accidentally do this once in a while. But if it is pervasive for some poster(s), that means they are trolls, by definition.
rdharma
(6,057 posts)Exactly!
Skittles
(153,193 posts)LEMME AT THEM!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)So carry on, those are great. And you have a point. I have been guilty of such myself in some of these free for alls.
I usually don't post on threads I consider trollish, although I do respond to people I know if it pops up or trash the threads.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)cinnabonbon
(860 posts)when that happens. They have a thousand other threads to talk about their issues, they don't need to hijack yours.
I just tell them to stop. Whether they do or not depends on how polite the poster is.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)Honestly, I usually lose interest in my own threads relatively quickly most of the time.
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)Is the posters that obviously didn't read the entire OP or the linked article. The knee-jerk reactions sometimes are unbelivable. Or when posters are corrected on their facts, and then you see them repeating the same falsehood in another thread later.
Hijacking is also very annoying. I'm not a big thread starter, but as a reader it's annoying to see long sub-threads not anywhere close to the original topic.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)If I'm looking down a thread, I've trained myself to take a glance at the indented posts.
Some of them are related conversations...But often they are the little hijacking battles between a couple of posters.
If its a thread I always figure no harm done, and am at least glad that they keep a post alive for a little while, which gives more exposure to the OP and related discussion.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)rrneck
(17,671 posts)Reply to posters that address the OP. Talk about what you want to talk about and ignore the others. If it won't steer, the OP wasn't interesting enough.
Of course, some tangents can be interesting as well. Just run with it.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)MerryBlooms
(11,771 posts)After many years, I recently put a couple of the more acute 'jackers on ignore. If they want to post pictures/video that have nothing to do with the topic they posted on, they can go to the Lounge to do that.
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)Cha
(297,655 posts)pie crap or whatever is their own little pet project.