[user104658]

Ammi I don't disagree, threads do run their course and I don't really mind when they're closed once they start going around in circles, it's the actual deletions that bother me... As I post a fair bit on work days, which means I can get really into a debate sitting on the toilet in the morning (oh yes) and also on the commute to work, but then probably won't check in again until lunch time or maybe even dinner time, and a couple of times lately the thread has vanished by then... Or has been "pruned" into something so disjointed and confusing that it's impossible to read. So I don't even know what was said or what happened. It makes it really not worth getting involved in the first place. If it's just closed, that's fine, that's something to read! Usually something quite interesting!

Again though, I'm not telling anyone how to do anything (genuinely!), it's a privately owned site and totally up to the admins. I'm not in a huff! I just don't actually have huge amounts of free time and it seems like every thread on these topics goes belly up lately, and if it's going to be standard I just won't engage in the "immigration threads".

However I will say again that I think it would be a shame, because I think often those people involved in the more "heated" back and forth are actually enjoying it and I don't think it always needs to be nipped in the bud, I think for many it's an enjoyable part of the forum. Possibly worth mentioning that vBulletin also has a "split" function in the mod tools that can be used to siphon the posts in a thread that have gone off topic into a new thread, if it's still a valid and ongoing discussion. I think it's inevitable that "off topic" will happen... These threads are less a formal debate, and more like a heated discussion at a gathering of friends, and that sort of discussion will inevitably flow into completely different topics over the course of a few pages. Again though that's the site Admin's business. I really am only asking for my own selfish benefit .