I’m not gonna mince words: There’s been an increase in the number of unnecessary threadjacks from readers who feel compelled to share their psychodramas with the world in the comment threads of (unrelated) posts.
Some of y’all need to stop. This blog is not a messageboard. (As for the repeated calls for “open threads so we can talk about what we want to talk about”? The short answer is “no”.) And by the way, getting tough on threadjacks is for our benefit and yours: readers are giving out extremely personal information that should not be posted on any website. Take the commenter who recently announced that she was a) having a surgical procedure b) what day said procedure was taking place, and c) where the procedure was taking place. There are crazy, mean-spirited people out there who have no qualms about doing another person harm – even via the internet – and the naivete in the comment threads with regards to this reality is stunning and disturbing. It is important to remember that the commenters on Jezebel are a tiny (albeit vocal) percentage of our entire readership, and we (and you) have no idea who is reading the site on any given day. It pains me to say it, but this is not a “safe space” or a bubble immune to the harsh realities of the outside world. That said, if you have an anecdote to share about, say, the demise of a recent romance, that’s fine; just do it in the thread of a post that is relevant to your personal story.
For those who feel compelled to share intimate and irrelevant (to the post at hand) dramas with the rest of the readership, I have three suggestions: