A recent thread got off topic, the topic being a story. Things were beginning to heat up with first a few mild general insults and then some that were more pointed. It really hadn't got out of hand and many people seemed to be enjoying things but I finally felt that it had gone on long enough since the topic was continuing four and five levels deep without reference to the story.

So ...

I unpubbed a lot of comments. I did not remove them, they're still there and people with moderator and editor privileges can see them. The ones I unpubbed were all ones that neglected to discuss the story but only talked about a side issue without direct reference to the story or only discussed someone else's side comment.

This is a policy here which is seldom invoked. And frankly, I wasn't sure whether to invoke it this time but ultimately I felt the discussion had begun to impact the presentation of the story in a negative way. For the most part it was a rather good-humored discussion but things were beginning to edge into the forbidden zone of personal remarks.

If anyone would like to discuss the removal of their comment, I'll be happy to do so in PMs. For that purpose, I'm turning off public comments on this thread itself.

Hugs to all,
Erin