Thread hijacking

[Hibush]

I'm not particularly worries about thread hijacking. Sometimes the discussion heads in a direction that doesn't interest me, but I can ignore things that don't interest me. On perennial threads, like CiDFS, the discussion will come back to the central theme. A new thread may die if it only raises a few original ideas and then devolves into repetition of some well-worn themes. That's ok.  A substantive tangent can be moved to a new thread, which is a helpful technical fix.

The Appalachia tangent, for example, may raise something of interest yet, since there are some additional regional trends that are causing that region's colleges to be more prone to dire financial straits. A little hillbilly belittlement and defense along the way is to be expected, because that is an American tradition as old as Appalachia. I shall resist adding to it.

The forum has people with a variety of perspectives, and who are willing to stick to those. That is a rare and valuable situation these days. I learn from that variety; even the perspective I'll continue to disagree with. We all have higher-ed in common, so we share some values about learning being a good thing.

[dr_codex]

Since I'm one of the people quoted in the original post, I will ring in here.

I'm going to try out the "ignore" function and see if it helps, as several of you have advised.

dc

[apl68]

This thread is now hijacked!  I'm directing it to fly to Alaska.  Because it seems like it would be an interesting place to visit, and I've heard it's lovely this time of year.

[little bongo]

I think it comes down to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's 1964 definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it."

[mahagonny]

But it appears that the forum has gotten quiet lately. Does this mean if you can't hijack, no one wants to play?

[Ruralguy]

I don't necessarily mind threadjacking, I just don't want to go around in circles on the same topics over and over.