[not_your_vase]

I can't give concrete advice, but I can give one example, when do I ignore people joining a conversation like this: when their contribution is only tangentially related, and kind of hijacks the original topic for no good reason.

E.g. I'm having a conversation with a hw engineer: (all imaginary below, but the main situation does happen every once in a while)

  > Me: This USB hub you designed seems to work on my Dell Desktop, but not on my HP laptop. Can you take a look at it?
  > HW Eng: Sure. But could it be a problem with the laptop? Maybe it's not my design's fault.
  > Me: Come on, it's an off the shelf laptop. We can't write in the user manual that users shouldn't use HP laptops, haha.
  > Hw Eng: Haha, okay, let me check it.
  > Random guy: Haha, I just sent my Asus tablet for warranty repair, you shouldn't buy Asus.

I mean, what should one say to this, if anything? I don't know if this is your case also. It's just one situation when this can happen.

[bastiengiraud]

Thanks for your illustration. I recognize myself in it and you made me realize that I am often making links between things unrelated to the conversation.

[gjvc]

that is what i would call a "micro-frustration" :-)