I was just wondering if this is possible for the Mods. The idea here is that once a thread starts heading off the rails, maybe the Mods could block certain posters who are taking it there from just that particular thread. It could be a last ditch effort to preserve a thread before locking it. I think we've all seen that in most popular threads that get locked, it's just a small handful of posters that are causing a problem. Obviously, if people feel so strongly that they start creating new log-ins to jump back into the fray, the thread could be locked (or, alternatively, the ban hammer could be wielded).
A more controversial alternative would be to allow users to ban people from threads they create (either at the outset or after the fact).
"We will get right on that after our Arby's lunch break."
Maybe letting new posters sign up isn't the best idea.
Neither is letting old posters post. So it's kinda a wash.
Given the events of the last few days to a week, I couldn't support this idea more. It's getting absurd
IMHO: Start a new thread once an old one gets off-topic. OT threads take on a life of their own, and trying to manage them is like trying to herd cats.
If we had an off topics thread then the mods which don't have much to do could just move all the off topic to the off topics thread; but if the off topics thread gets off topic I'm not sure that solves the problem.