Recently, on the Whatever, the topic of thread etiquette came up. Since many of us are already professionals, I thought it would make sense to post a HOW-TO for those not so enlightened.
1) Be a Regular. This is not to be confused with being regular, because how boring is that? Rather, I mean be a regular to the site. Hijacking is much easier to accept from someone that commonly posts comments. For example: If an unfamiliar commenter on my site were to leave a comment offering to sell me something that will keep my wife satisfied all night long — I’d immediately delete it. If one of my regulars posted such a link, however, I would probably assume it was a link to a house cleaning android sale. Basically, you gotta build up your street cred to get away with off-topic stuff.
2) You Need a Hook. Except in some specific circumstances, even off-topic comments need to tie in somehow. For example: If I post a story about a cell phone, you could easily get off topic by saying, “I was talking on my cellphone yesterday, and guess what happened?!?!”
If you don’t have a hook, it has to be really creative. You have to pull off something so interesting and/or funny, that no one notices the hijack. I can’t really give you an example here, because it’s different for every blog post. This is a difficult skill to master, and leads us to…
3) It’s Hard to Smack Down a Funny Comment. If you hope to steal the conversation, you must take everyone’s interest off topic. Especially the author’s. Really, humor is the only effective way to do this consistently. And it must be genuinely funny too. You can only get away with a, “That’s what she said” or a really bad pun after you build up your humor cred.
Along with this, it’s important to know your audience. It’s unlikely a quippy quote from, “The Holy Grail” will score many laughs on a NASCAR blog. (Are there NASCAR blogs?) The opposite is true too. If you say something like, “Yeah, that’s like Earnhart driving the Pepsi car” on my blog, I’ll give you a blank stare. And then delete your comment. (Or make fun of you, depending on how inadvertently absurd you sound)
4) Some Hijacks Don’t Work. You have to be smart when you try to hijack a thread. If you see your favorite blogger post a picture of his cat doing something funny, or her family at Disneyland — thou shalt not post a comment linking to a political issue. Guess what? We post pictures of our cats because we don’t want to talk about the reality of politics and such at that time. There are some exceptions, like if I post a picture of my cat in a cape with the caption, “Super Tuesday Kitty”, yes, you may leave a political comment. (Unless it’s not actually near the Super Tuesday caucuses, so this really only works every 4 years or so)
5) Use Your Real Name, or a Rational Pseudonym. I will never follow links from jH0nn33-h34R7BR34|<3r. Even if you show me a driver’s license with that name on it. I will simply slap your parents, and move on. Don’t get crafty either, and think it’s funny to use the name, “Click Here for Naked Pictures of Hilary.” It’s not. (I don’t want to see the Google hits that gets me…)
6) Or Just Go Home. Look, the best way to hijack a comment thread is not to do it at all. Get your own blog. They’re free. If you have something interesting to say, people will come. Or, if you just want people to come, type the names of celebrities and the words naked pictures. You’ll get traffic. They will probably hijack your comments too. You’ll have to post something like this. And the circle will be complete.
7) Secret Email Address of Successful Bloggers. Successful bloggers have a secret address they give out to people they want to hear from. It’s an address pro bloggers use to get the inside scoop on off-topic issues. Did you think successful bloggers just wrote well?!?!! The address is an acronym for “Supremely Pertinent Abstract Message” — and your favorite blogger would LOVE to hear about your Aunt Ruth’s knee surgery, or how Ron Paul secretly eats kittens. Go ahead and drop a message to the acronym address, “spam@favoritebloggersite.com” NOTE: This address is super secret, and it’s unlikely you’ll get a response. That’s just because we want to keep it a secret. DON’T TELL!!!
So there you have it. Now go comment away, knowing that you have the keys to the kingdom.
But what if you don’t mean to hijack? What if things just come to your mind that happen to be tangentially related?
Is that hijacking?
Which reminds me, did you hear that they’re still looking into the case about the guy that stole all the money and then jumped out of the airplane?
I deeply resent the way the NY Primaries only counted my vote once. I’m right and the other guys are wrong. My vote should county thirty-eleventy times.
LIke that?
Oh, and that Hilary comment only got you to Googles 4th page on that search. Try harder.
Right, see? It’s a simple formula. You say, “thirty-eleventy” and I’m reluctant to delete it. 🙂
And the NY Primaries wouldn’t even accept ONE of my votes. Feel lucky…
The Grabill Family is confused.
Nathan… ROFLMAO
I did post an LOLdog talking about the elections today, what a coincidence. 😉
Shawn, my parents named me J3r1lYnn but I’ve been using Jeri for years. My teachers would get so confused in elementary school!
I guess I’m just out of luck since I decided to change my name every time I post here.
Oh well I don’t think I can hijack a thread anyway. There is a court order restraining me from “having a hook”.
No no, Brad… We know who you are. We see where you sleep. We swear to everything holy that your mother will cry when she sees what we’ve done to you…
(Settle down now, it was just a harmless Tommy Boy quote, you people must think I’m a freak or something… sheesh…)
I was thinking about posting on here and actually being anonymous.
You have mentioned keeping decent track of hit statistics so It would be fun to try. I could use a gorillamail.com temporary mail account and browse here through a public proxy. That would make it pretty hard to tell who is posting from where!
There isn’t much of a point to any of that so I probably won’t. I just like thinking about doing fun stuff with technology.
Maximus,
Nah, I don’t track folks — I mind read. I mean, really, you’re commenting in, “The Brain of Shawn.” Creepy stalking is almost a given, no? ;o)
(For the record, I’m the only one that sees the email addresses and IP addresses of visitors, and I pledge to keep your identity secret. Just be sure to wear glasses. That always works for Superman)
Ron Paul eats kittens? I was willing to accept all that racist, Big “L” libertarian stuff, but now that I know he eats kittens, he’s lost my vote.
Kitten eating…who knew?
Good Day
Just wanted to share my new experience.
If your Windows XP fails to run due to an error corresponding to lost HAL.DLL, invalid Boot.ini or any other critical system boot files you can repair this by using the XP installation CD. Simply boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console. Then run “attrib -H -R -S” on the C:Boot.ini file and remove it. Run “Bootcfg /Rebuild” and then Fixboot
Regards,
Carl
I started this thread to speak about public available web proxies:
Which are really anonymous?
Which can unblock facebook, myspace etc, in other words: are fresh ?
Which can you recommend?
Thanks for your help,
Dschibut
P.S.: In my country, the freedom of speech is somehow constrained, please give me a hint, if you have doubts about your recommendation.
Hi. I repeatedly announce this forum. This is the head culture unqualified to ask a ridiculous.
How multifarious in this forum are references Nautical port behind, knavish users?
Can I depute all the advice that there is?
President-elect Barack Obama delivered a speech today, January 8, 2009. Obama discussed the current economic crisis and urged Congress to act quickly in passing a stimulus bill, warning that the recession could become
(Video + Transcript)
Infrastructure? What is he thinking? The US has some of the best infrastructure in the world. Anyone who has traveled can see that. Only Europe has better… and not ALL of Europe. Not only that, but there are 250,000 people out of work on Wall Street, and Obama is going to hand them all a shovel? …NONSENS !