Hey. I hope it is okay for me to post this... I guess I'll find out... I was wondering how people here feel about threads evolving over time...

I mean... Somebody starts a thread with some topic or other and then people post to the thread...

Is it okay for people to direct their responses to posters other than the poster who started the thread?

Is it okay for the conversation to split out into seperate tangents so there could be two or three or four discussions going on within the thread?

I mean... I understand that sometimes people really are looking for support or an answer to a question or something. I understand that it would be rather rude to jump on in and ignore that person. But I also have sympathy for the notion that threads evolve over time and that the person who started the thread could post 'hey i started this thread and i'm feeling a little ignored' and i would imagine that would be enough to reign the conversation back in to its original topic if the person who started the thread felt so inclined.

How do people decide what is and is not on topic anyways?
If I start a thread with ((((((((((gg)))))))) then if she replies ((((((((((special_k))))))))))) then is that off topic cause the thread is about giving gg hugs?

Is this making any kind of sense to anybody?????