h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's not just you Sho

It's interesting you mention that RHS thread. Out of 15 (currently) replies, nine are pointless and/or irrelevant, and one of the good ones is Sasha correcting herself after re-reading the BBC piece, so you could say 9/14 replies are the kind that are bugging both you and I.

My way of dealing with it is to not read any posts from certain people. There are Researchers whose posts I always skip over when I see their name. Sometimes that can make reading a conversation difficult because other Researchers are replying to something I haven't read.

There are other people who aren't as consistently annoying but who still post pointless comments.

Perhaps it's an ego thing. 'I don't have anything relevant to the subject to say but I've got a really funny comment that's tenuously related that I want everyone to read, and people will think I'm really interesting'.

Would it be possible to not use actual threads and potentially researchers as examples? Let's not point too many fingers, please...

God, no. Woe forbid that we actually interact with other people in any meaningful sort of way.

B

Have you ever meaningfully interacted with people B? I thought you just communicated entirely in innuendo and sarcasm.

I've had meaningful interaction with Mu Beta, and in person! No funny business mind you, oh no. 2legs was on hand to make sure everything stayed above the waist

Did I just say that out loud?

Get. Out. Of. My. Head.

I think the only other reasonable comeback is to tell Psycorp to go and meaningfully interact with himself.

B

Ahhh..... now this is what I miss about hootoo!

FB

You used to be able to get this sort of banter on Facebook, but Psyc unfriended me after he got all sensitive about me flirting with his mum.

B

She kept phoning me asking "who [my] dick-head mate Ben is?"

Eventually, I decided that in order to stop her trying to get Mu Beta's number and to save my parents' marriage, he had to go.

It was a tough decision.

That's odd. I felt she was the only person who understood the base joy of ripping the piss out of you on the same level that I did.

B

Did I tell you about the first time she met L's parents? We went for a meal at a nearby pub, I went to get the beers in and returned with her in full flow.

"The thing about raising Freak Boy is that it was so hard buying shoes for him. He needs canal boats on his feet."

It was joyous. For everyone but me.

Mothers are supposed to embarrass their children, dahlink


I do it to VV all the time *hic*


lil xx

Sho, you've got to admit that as thread derailments go, this is one of the best

best thread on hootoo for yonks. Unfortunately
all round

Derailment - verb - the failure of a railway unit to remain between the 'tracks'

Colloquially to loose direction or control.

On Hootoo - to pervert any conversation to one's own end, no matter how slight the original thought is to your own agenda.

Did I win

There's a difference between topic drift, and thread derailment.

Topic drift is when the conversation naturally turns, and that's something that we're pretty good at here.

Derailment is deliberately changing the topic of the conversation, and *that* is against the House Rules. It's annoying and it's disruptive, and we do ask that if anyone sees anything breaking the House Rules, do yikes it.

Yes, but re-defining the question, which is the behaviour being discussed here is not really derailing. It's hard to put your finger on a rule that is being broken here. It's just arrogance.

If someone has got the wrong end of the stick in Post 1, surely the thing to do is

(a) wait for someone ('Poster A') to demonstrate this by posting something that shows they have not understood - not jump in at Post 2 and give a lecture on what we are talking about and

(b) THEN post something in a polite and less condescending manner with the caveat that you yourself may have misunderstood it. In other words, this is just your own interpretation.

Poster A might have got the right end of the stick, after all, and the self-appointed "corrector" might not have understood the point at all. (as the example given shows)

All in all, though, I just say "Nicht ärgern, nur wundern" - (Don't get annoyed, just amazed)

I think I might have just re-defined the question. Damn.

but it's not re-defining the question, that's not so bad for me. Annoying but I can live with it (especially when the original question is a bit ambiguous it can be a help)

but.

Poster A writes something (oh I don't know, maybe about camels)

then if we're lucky we get a few posts, if not it comes direct in the second post

Poster B defines what a camel is - when everyone in the thread already knows what a flipping camel is. And we are hootoo so if we want to know stuff we are all capable of either asking or googling.

I find it rude and patronising and I'm not going in any other threads because it drives me flipping crazy.