This is a chat forum and thread starters are chat facilitators, not chat controllers. So I think your notion - of thread starter equating to teacher and all who respond are students who are supposed to stay strictly on the topic the author intended - is misguided and not applicable.
This is a chat forum and thread starters are chat facilitators, not chat controllers. So I think your notion - of thread starter equating to teacher and all who respond are students who are supposed to stay strictly on the topic the author intended - is misguided and not applicable.
Ever hear of poisoning the thread? Ever hear of hi-jacking a thread? That happens all too often.
When I post a thread, I stay with it pretty much until people are done...I consider it polite to do so. Therefore, it is an investment of my time and effort, so I feel perfectly justified to try to keep it on topic...especially with as many comments as came in. I am not controlling, I am facilitating.
Other people may post and run, i.e. they leave the thread and folks say whatever they want...or their threads only have a few comments, they can do what they want.
You are more than welcome to start a thread about this article, the title, God’s will or whatever you like. However, that is not why I posted the thread...
Actually, I think I am doing poster a favor by pointing what the article is about or why I posted it...and it is perfectly OK for me to try to keep it on topic—especially since your comments were directed to me—others started discussing things among themselves on the thread and that is fine I let them...
As a person who tries to read and understand before I comment, I have found it surprising how so many people will comment on things that have no bearing on the article—they read one word, or one line, and they are off to the races with irrelevant or erroneous comments...
Sorry, I guess like many things here on FR these days, we will just have to agree to disagree.