Originally Posted by
daredevil 
Even when AVRT is discussed constructively, any opposing ideas meet vehement opposition— with ‘this is off-topic for this thread’ or some derivation thereof ...
ok, so I've done this a few times & it seems to have upset some people, which wasn't my intention. conversely, I've also had PMs thanking me for doing it from other people.
if something fairly specific is being discussed & the discussion is going off on a tangent, then maybe it is off-topic *for the thread*. it's definitely not saying "your contribution is no good", it's just maybe taking the topic off-track. there's nothing to stop people starting a new thread to continue their discussion, & putting a link to it in the original thread if they wish, so others can follow the discussion to the new thread.