Reading through this thread I recalled that on another forum (of completely different website) the moderators were able to move posts from one thread to another. They were also able to move a thread from one forum (um, group of threads?) to another. And, they sometimes created a new thread then moved the posts from a previous thread into it.

All of that was done for managing obvious derailments of a thread. Also, it enabled a way to lock (if it eventually came to that...) a different thread than the original thread that might have gotten derailed by a different, um, "discussion" emerging within it. I mean it wouldn't necessarily have to be an argument, but even it was an argument then it could be given the opportunity to be worked out separately and without drawing in (as many) extra participants to such a tangent. In fact, sometimes the participants of the side-discussion would make the request of having their posts shifted out of thread into their own for continuing it separately.

I'm getting the impression moderators on this forum don't have the means for doing such rearrangements of posts, threads, forum (er, groups of threads?), etcetera? I mean, I haven't noticed any such rearrangements in the GOG forum. In my mind, that's what I expect a moderator would be helping to do: keeping things organized. That in itself would help keep threads from getting excessively long from rapid-fire responses to triggered tangents, while maintaining a greater relevancy for threads. I mean, it'd be easier to skim through a thread of posts not having to skip over lengthy unrelated discussions or arguments (and especially without a means for hide/show of posts, threads, etc.). Admittedly, the OP of a thread generally were expected to call for help (or for advice) when needed rather than the moderators having to read everything, though I got the impression it was still a lot of work for the moderators.