Derailing A Thread

Everyone has been a victim or a cause of thread derailing. So what is this mysterious thing called "derailing a thread"?

It is the act of throwing a thread in a discussion forum off topic, oftentimes so much so that the original discussion is unable to continue.

A common result of a troll attempting to have fun at the expense of people actually trying to use the forum.

A common result of a flame war between multiple users.

Commonly helped along unintentionally by people who are simply off topic, as well as the occasional Grammar Nazi.

For those who would like to avoid reading the above text



For those who would like to see it in motion:

Here is an example as might happen in the forum of an unreleased video game:

Topic: Post your ideas for things you want the developers to put into the game!

Original Poster:
Hey guys Ill edit my post to add ur ideas to this post Ill start off with destructible terrain no one's pulled that off as well as X-Com did back in the day.

Grammar Nazi:
Man Original Poster! What's with all of the huge run on sentence! Use some punctuation while you are at it too. Also, don't say ur, abbreviations are for text messaging, no one's gonna take you seriously.

Troll:
Haaahaaa, whatever Grammar nazi, ur so shtupid, wher'd u get ur PHD, shtupid land? n` Original Poster, wat u doin playin such an old game like X-Com for, it's SOOOO dated, I hate da graphics and der are so many bugs n crap

Original Poster:
Hey, X-Com is still rated the #1 game of all time by a lot of people! Who cares if it's got dated graphics, and if you get the right version or a fan made patch you can run it on a modern system easy.

Moderator:
Troll, stop trying to derail threads, this is your first warning, two more and it's a ban.

And Grammar Nazi, don't correct people's grammar in a thread, if you absolutely MUST do it, send a private message instead so it doesn't clutter up the forum!

I see you two derailing a thread every time I log onto the forum. And Original Poster, get back on topic or I'm going to lock this thread.

But what to do when the Mod's don't listen to you or are not around even after you register a complaint due to any reason? Very simple appease the derailers by using this:

Don't derail this thread is my humble request.
What I mean by the above request is that you should not take a lot of time before posting a response if need be.

Derailment is an act of causing a delay to an event. For example, if people were to set off for a journey, some woman (always) may be taking too long to get ready. Such women always delay (derail) the commencement of the journey.

In a discussion, the person who derails is the one who takes a lot of time before contributing when/if required. Such discussions may end up taking a longer time to conclude.

In discussion forums like this, the word "derail" has been misused when it is being applied to the act of drifting to another topic or introducing non-issue comments.

I rarely (never) consider those who introduce non-intended topics into threads as thread derailers, but I consider them as geniuses capable of shifting from one topic to the other as illustrated below:

Starting the discussion from weather, to God (religion), to women, to chics, to politics, to sports, then finally, after six hours of talking and talking, you conclude by saying, "hey I gotta go, I'll keep in touch. I enjoyed every minute of the time we've had.".

Pleases, don't derail this thread.

But you know how people are, they take request as weakness. And that misconception boost their efforts to further derail it. Now one is in a sticky situation the Mods are not listening to you and the derailers are not being appeased. Take out your ultimate weapon. Oh yeah baby!!

Send them to The Ultimate Derailing Thread. This thread has been specifically made for the aim not to simply ignore what the above poster is saying but also to swing the flow of conversation in another direction and incorporate new subject matter. The derailers will have their wish granted and you can continue with the subject on topic .

End.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by December_Rain]

Great thread! ATS isn't as bad as some other places, but damn those trolls do certainly exsist here....I've noticed that it is more isolated to specific threads here like "9/11 truther" threads or "ufo phenomenon". The trolls here seem to exsist for a sole pourpose to belittle whatever catagory they don't like. *shrug* that's life I guess? It CAN be very annoying tho when a good topic is brought to light...

[edit on 7-3-2010 by Wookiep]

I will only derail a thread if it is absolute garbage and doesn't make sense!

I'm not a troll or anything of the sort... Just don't want to see the site being destroyed by a couple of rogue members!

I've got to say you make an excellent point !

It happened to me just yesterday.
I got send to board issues with a reason what didn't even come close to the question I made.

Weird huh ? ( could have been I was misunderstood tho )

S & F for you !

[edit on 06/03/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

reply to post by December_Rain


I have derailed a few threads,but not intentionally.I
have a warped sense of humor that sometimes takes
over.I will also defend my faith in a thread.I don't like
to read cuss words either.I know people know more
words other than cuss words.They just use cuss words
for shock value,nothing more.
Great thread,star and flag!I forgot you can't star here.

[edit on 7-3-2010 by mamabeth]

I had a thread of mine knocked off balance twice by a mod because of a tell off to someone who forgot to put up the scorce! the mod should leave it at that we get the message! but then he comes on the comments again explaining something when he could of sent a personal message instead of knocking the thread off balance an flow!

[edit on 7-3-2010 by DCDAVECLARKE]

I tried to 'bump' an Internos thread by making a post that sorta tied in with his OP. He's a friend and I felt the thread deserved more attention. Needless to say...a few posts later and I realised I'd derailed the thread. Armap can share in my guilt too! It was too late to remove the posts.

I made amends a couple of months ago by linking it and seeing it pass the 100 flag mark....

I guess the point I'm struggling to make is most/many derailments are an outcome of enthusiasm rather than mischief or intent.

Anyone see that crash in the Nascar race today... now that was a derailment.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
I tried to 'bump' an Internal thread by making a post that sorta tied in with his OP. He's a friend and I felt the thread deserved more attention. Needless to say...a few posts later and I realised I'd derailed the thread. Armap can share in my guilt too! It was too late to remove the posts.

I made amends a couple of months ago by linking it and seeing it pass the 100 flag mark....

I guess the point I'm struggling to make is most/many derailments are an outcome of enthusiasm rather than mischief or intent.

Well said man, an other thing that gets me is why is it so tedious to trow up a vid on this site? im a member of 5 different forums and iv never come across such a hassle to quickly put up a vid! who made the decision at ATS to have it this way?

Derailing a thread can be unintentional and a result of natural progression of the topic - or even as simple as the original topic sparking a new thought... I've certainly been guilty of this. Typically though, the thread can be brought back on course assuming it hasn't already run it's original course... If there is intentional derailing of thread to subvert or prevent the discussion of the original topic with malicious intent, that is a whole different story...

reply to post by LadySkadi


I agree with your post,since I can't give you a star

I had one of my threads seriously derailed.Two members
were attacking each other on one member's thread.A mod
shut down that thread.I had a thread on a similar subject
and their battle continued on my thread.
I contacted a mod about shutting down my thread.Those two
who were bickering,one got banned.That is another reason
why we have to keep an eye on our threads.Other members
can take your thread where you never meant for it to go.

i have had almost every thread de railed already

I got accused of trying to derail a thread one time. It was about how aliens made these crop circles, and I asked how they knew it wasn't man-made. Apparently such questions were off-topic in that thread.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
I got accused of trying to derail a thread one time. It was about how aliens made these crop circles, and I asked how they knew it wasn't man-made. Apparently such questions were off-topic in that thread.

Well.....

It serves you right for playing in crop circle threads!

What do you think about that Sydney UFO?


[edit on 2-4-2010 by Maybe...maybe not]

Originally posted by Maybe...maybe not

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
I got accused of trying to derail a thread one time. It was about how aliens made these crop circles, and I asked how they knew it wasn't man-made. Apparently such questions were off-topic in that thread.

Well.....

It serves you right for playing in crop circle threads!

What do you think about that Sydney UFO?

Well if you look at the way thread derailment is described in this OP, as taking the thread off course, I think derailment is insufficient to describe what took place in that thread, such as taking a position in one post and 3 posts later saying the exact opposite, saying there's too much science and apparently implying the solution to balance out the 20 posters who want to discuss the science, is to have another 20 posters discussing things other than science (like what, incoherent ramblings?) to balance it out. Derailment somehow seems like an insufficient description of the activity in that thread. Maybe I can post some emoticons to describe the condition better than derailment, without violating the T&C? Such as:

:shk: :bash: :bnghd:

Is that a better description than derailment?

If people don't respond to the derailment it ends.

As an op don't complain about thread derailment if you ever engage it or try to rebut it.

Same with trolling.

Ignore it.

Better yet if you notice derailment report it as soon as noticed. Do notv ever engage.

As a participant don't engage in off topic derailment.

These arebasic rules.

But it will never stop until people learn to ignore and report troll posts. I think some posters think they look cool besting a troll or proving them wrong. Yet in fact by egaging the troll you yourself become the troll and contribute to derailing.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Truer words have never been spoken.

Springer...

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Arbitrageur.....

I guess you're right.

That was less "derailing", than it was....ummm.....well....errr.....that's it....what your BBcode guys said!

Cheers mate
Maybe...maybe not

It should not go without saying that authors of the thread sometimes use the "stop derailing my thread -- you're a troll with an agenda" simply because they don't want to or can't prove their theory entirely.

reply to post by December_Rain


That's quite an interesting avatar you have there December_Rain. At first read through I glanced over and thought it was just some strange translucent white line picture of some sort. So I kept reading. But now I can plainly see it is a Zebra!

Speaking of Zebra's, would anyone consider them an animal that is naturally white with black stripes, or naturally black with white stripes? Has that question been answered in any manner on the boards?

I suppose you could ask this of any striped animal. The next one that comes to mind is a tiger. I'm pretty sure if an ATSr were to make an avatar in the same style as yours December_Rain, but with a Tiger, it too would be quite an amazing image. I'd do it but my talent with any image creating program is sorely lacking. Anyone up for the challenge?