Chris,

I sympathize with your frustration, however what you are proposing is not possible. The thread may clean-up for a while but it would soon get cluttered with off topic material again. I have noticed this in every discussion group I've participated in on the Internet. A common and frustrating occurance is new people seeking information that has been discussed ad-nauseum in other threads. And, as you mention above, threads turn into a repeating string of what about this and what about that.

I think it is human nature to want the information one is seeking quickly and with the least amount effort. Therefore, people do not conduct searches of past threads to look for info which leads to multiple posts of the same question or topic. I think the only way to control the content of each forum is aggressive monitoring and reposting of off topic posts to the appropriate forum by the moderators of each forum. Obviously, this is unrealistic. I think we are stuck with what we have and should just make the best of it. In fact, I've noticed that after a while you tend to tune out threads and posts that don't apply or interest you.

Ken Pavlou