If ETS wants to grow then the forum shouldn't shrink.
Every forum I've participated in ends up having a broader discussion area because it is normal human behavior for conversations to broaden -- especially as people get to "know" one another and become a community.
The best threads are conversations.
I'm now wondering if I'm a culprit because I posted on Peggy Noonan's column about general anxiety in the populace. That's a fact that's creeping into a lot of conversations these days.
I confess to not regularly reading the rules. Had thought the Armageddon-TEOTWAWKI subject the big bugaboo. Didn't think I'd transgressed in that way but perhaps I slipped on the slippery slope.
Cut this sub-forum and I think ETS is less interesting.
That's my 2 cents, unadjusted for future inflation.