Meandering threads

The most innocent usage in the United States tends to mean something perverted in England. Or the other way around, I guess.

Doesn't "I walked through a field of dandelions" mean "I had sex with a human skull"?

The Usual I should think. It's a Dylan song in Hearts of Fire. I'll Have the Usual.

and I'm still agreeing with Spendy on this. well, most of it.

The line stops at his usual gender cr@hp.

~~~

What do people do in real life when someone in a discussion meanders off on a digression? do you shout out "oy! stick to the topic, it interested me"?

Snotty nosing is always off topic.

In the pub E it happens a very great deal. It is polite to let it go and wait for an opportunity to return to the topic. If the meandering is interesting enough it can supplant the topic and be supplanted in its turn and so on and so on until the landlord turfs you out into the dark forbidding night. If any of the lost topics are interesting enough they can easily be returned to on subsequent evenings.

There are quite sufficient rules and regulations as it is without allowing them to encroach upon conversations. A good meander can often produce an insight into the topic which hadn't been thought of before.

I'll not take detailed issue with that remark E. Suffice to say that I consider that there's a 100% statistical correlation between those who call others misogynists and flat out, dyed in the wool misogyny.

One might pull the trolley off the track as a show of disdain for the earnestness of others. You don't have to be Freud to figure out why a person would do that.

What's interesting though, is how that works. Attention withdraws from the complexity of the topic to the digressor. Once someone waves the navel gazing flag, it's like there's a spring loaded device poised cause staring... at... the navel.

What loads this spring? And is it possible for it to ever completely exhaust it's... um retractive force.. and come to rest?

Not really. Digression puts a frame on earnestness. It draws it into consideration. "I actually care about this."

Somebody recently posted the common notion that people over-emphasize their own significance in the universe. And if we're so insignificant... well compared to what? What incredibly important event is proceeding in the universe, compared to which, we are puny nothings? What great party is going on that we weren't invited to?

Did I just completely digress from the topic of this thread? It's probably in the eye of the beholder. I don't plan on testing it, but I have full confidence that there is no track-jumping post that I couldn't relate back to the OP in some way. Everything is related to everything else.

In short, Speni is right. Something is being created through digressions. Whether one values it depends on one's... um.. values.

Will you please elaborate on your meaning of that Arj?

A couple of humans are discussing Topic X. A third party engages them with a viewpoint that makes light of their seriousness. Motive?

That they shouldn't be discussing serious topics in view of the well known scientific facts under the domain of which our lives are spent. To help them live a more enjoyable life and maybe guide them towards discovering that nothing interesting happens in serious discussions and that frivolity is the route to wisdom.

Look at Einstein riding down a moonbeam at 99.9999rec% of the speed of light. You can't call that serious.

A sympathetic therapeutic role. Compassion.

Hmm. And how do you feel about that?

I don't mind transgressions. I especially love the humorous segues' and the clever twists some of the more colourful characters of A2K take us on.

It makes me feel like a good bloke. How do you feel about that?

And I avoid cheap flattery. Engaging in that makes me feel like a heel.

I don't detect any feelings about it. It's good to put all your cards on the table. That way people know where you stand.

I officially declare this thread to be a mess . . .

I don't think discussions people have in real life are the same thing as online discussions, Beth. Again, I'm referring to the "meatier", specific topic-based discussions, not informal communal chatting, which more closely resembles real life. They are two different things, in my opinion. Real life talk is full of meanderings, online discussions are an attempt at a discussion of a particular topic. It would be very unusual & not exactly welcomed, I'd imagine, for anyone visiting your house to announce that this is the particular topic they wish to discuss in detail today. (You can't put them on "ignore", or scroll over any of their comments, either. ) The intention of an online discussion (of the more focused variety, anyway) is quite a different thing, I'd say. Otherwise, why do we bother to have subject topics at all? We could all just talk away about anything that comes into our heads, like in real life. Wall to wall chat room.

I also think a digression is quite a different thing to what I call a "derailment" of a thread topic. A derailment destroys the intention of the topic discussion. Too bad if the participants actually want to discuss it. That's my main concern here. I really miss the more focused, in-depth discussions. Interesting ones that you can learn from, which appear to be becoming fewer & farther between. As I said in an earlier post, I enjoy the casual spontaneous "anything goes" threads & communal chats as much as the next person. I simply think there's room for more subject-focused discussions, too. (Apart from US political concerns, there don't appear to be all that many these days.) Seriously, I can see that it might be more trouble than it's worth to instigate such threads, and then attempt to maintain them, if they there's a real chance of derailment. I mean, why would you bother?

Yep, the constant demeaning comments about "ladies", especially when inserted into threads which have nothing what-so-ever to do with the subject, are a pain.

I'd have a whole lot more respect for spendius if, instead of derailing any number of other threads with his "thoughts of the day", he'd simply be more up-front.

Spendius, as a nice change from derailing other people's threads, why not (just once even) start your own thread on any one of your pet topics? Like, for example, a thread about the relevance of the Catholic Church, or about your gripes with feminists, etc ... or whatever you really want to talk about at length.
Just once actually start your own thread, put your case & argue your position with all comers. I'd really like to see that!

There's also what I call "the on-topic police". (Not you, don't worry.) They further derail the thread by calling out everyone who they think has veered off the thread's topic. Note to the on-topic police: Complaints that a poster is off-topic are themselves off-topic. Feel free to ignore the offending posts. Feel free to thumb them down so you don't see them. But don't respond to them, not even by telling posters they're off-topic. That only derails the thread further.

Then there's my personal favorite, "the off-topic police": Every now and then, I don't catch a thread when it is started, discover it when it has already gone on for ten pages, and respond to the initial post without reading those other ten pages. Sometimes, I'm getting called out because I'm duplicating a point that's already been made three times. Fair enough. But other times, the thread merely has meandered to some other topic. That's when people censure me for bringing the thread back on topic. Of course, the off-topic police doesn't see it that way. It sees my post as being off the topic that the thread has meandered to, and sees itself as policing adherence to the new topic.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Thomas, you are damned for many more and better reasons than that.

While this post wasn't off-topic, it was definitely out of character. Here, let me correct it for you:

"I meandered off-topic once, but I forgot the thread where I did that. Off to go search for it. Will be back with a link."

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