Hijack this Thread

Thread Hijacking in the Google+ context

This might seem a little counter intuitive to long-time forum users where thread hijacking is one of the primary faux pas (what is the plural of faux pas? +Samantha Villenave – can you help, mon amis?)

Thread hijacking, for those of you who probably had other important things to do besides using forums, is when a user or users comment on the original post with things that are not related to that original post… a successful thread hijacking would change the entire course of the conversation away from the original post’s topic. You can see how the original poster would be a little dismayed that his/her “thread” was taken off course.

But Maybe Allowing the Conversation to Change is Natural

Social networks allow for a digital representation of one’s social life – when you’re talking to a friend – do you always stay on topic? Do you allow for tangents? This isn’t business, here, this is relaxation. On G+, posts and the comment threads accompanying posts work a lot like forums, true, but they also work a lot like conversations.

Anyone who tries to dominate a social conversation’s trajectory offline would be given funny looks, right? Imagine sitting around a table engaged in a friendly conversation with people who you have just met. You’re talking about – I don’t know – the New York Giants and someone says, “You know I’ve never been to New York, I’ve been thinking about taking a vacation” and all of a sudden the conversation takes a turn to tourist spots and excellent restaurants around Madison Square Garden — and then someone goes — “No, we’re not talking about that right now – we must keep talking about the Giants” – that would be weird, eh; probably a little rude even.

So, thread-starters, why not see where the conversation leads you? Allowing for that sort of spontaneity – friendly conversation – people having fun – those sound like good things, right?

Also consider that you can keep talking about what you want to talk about and not having to respond to would-be thread hijackers. At some point they’ll find a better venue for their conversation.

So, why is it different on G+?

It might not be – but since I’m posting it on G+ I know that the people who read this will have something in common. G+ allows people to meet each other who they otherwise would never have met. As a poster, a user who is posting comment – that is, and opening up your posts for discussion – you are not just inviting people to talk to you – but you are also allowing them to talk to each other –

Think of it this way You are the host of all of your posts so be a good host! Introduce people to each other (tagging them hey +Friend meet +Friend 2 who just made a motorcycle analogy – you guys might get along because you’re gear heads.

It’s happened to me before! I’m sure we all have instances where we’ve Circled someone because of discourse seen or had within the comments of another person’s post.

As an example of one of the beneficial aspects of not trying to control your post – awhile back – I posted something about doing classes online w/ +Stanford University . I was asking something like – who else is doing this – we should study together, etc. +Kimberly Hayworth- a Stanford employee (right, Kim?) found the thread and felt the impulse to post a bevy of helpful links and resources for online learning and it resulted in several comments and she apologized (!!!) for being interested. She then went on to do her own post and explore her interests extensively…she was encouraged by other G+ users – finding out through the comments of that post that people would be interested in seeing her talk about it more.

Of course, thread hijacking for the sake of thread hijacking is discouraged…

…that’s just mean. Attempting to change conversations because you don’t want to talk about something – or explore an avenue of the original topic that others are interested in discussing is fairly selfish, in my opinion. Again, all comments in these threads are kept chronologically ordered – so you can start talking about something new without disrupting a larger conversation – but posting 3, 4, or 5 times in a row to get attention – that’s something that could be frowned upon. Remember – you can edit a post to keep everything you want to say in the same box (replying to another person merits a new comment, of course).

TL:DR?

With that being said – this is certainly not a post that dives deep into the intricacies of unwritten posting etiquette – but just keep these things in mind – allow for conversation to bloom and grow and have a mind of its own. And don’t be a jerk. He excellent to each other.