This is taken from a mate of mine on another forum>
There are 3 kinds of thread derailing, 2 are useful one isn't.
Derail 1, a thread has served its usefulness eg question answered thread dead, now moves on to some light entertainment, not really anything wrong with that, these forums are as much about community as they are info.
Derail 2, a topic is becoming heated and likely to go nowhere but down, is suddenly derailed and goes from the beginnings of a flame war to an entertaining thread. Again not a big problem, fun threads are better than flame wars any day of the week. However
Derail 3 a topic is valuable and full of info and is being conducted respectfully, derailing this thread serves no usefull purpose and stops the thread serving the useful purpose that it was happily serving.
I often go the Type 1 so hope I haven't pissed anyone off by doing this!
There are 3 kinds of thread derailing, 2 are useful one isn't.
Derail 1, a thread has served its usefulness eg question answered thread dead, now moves on to some light entertainment, not really anything wrong with that, these forums are as much about community as they are info.
Derail 2, a topic is becoming heated and likely to go nowhere but down, is suddenly derailed and goes from the beginnings of a flame war to an entertaining thread. Again not a big problem, fun threads are better than flame wars any day of the week. However
Derail 3 a topic is valuable and full of info and is being conducted respectfully, derailing this thread serves no usefull purpose and stops the thread serving the useful purpose that it was happily serving.
I often go the Type 1 so hope I haven't pissed anyone off by doing this!
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