Hi, given the recent discussion on what constitutes on vs off-topic discussion, I thought I’d share some thoughts:
It seems like this forum has two uses:
1. To allow users immediate help and discussion.
In my opinion we should let the casual comments, mildly off-topic conversations, duplicate questions, etc. to stay as they are for this purpose. I think as a volunteer-based community having a welcoming, non-threatening atmosphere is extremely important.
2. To serve as a medium to long term repository of information.
Less formal and structured than the wiki but more permanent and discoverable than a chat room or mailing list.
For this use, jokes, off-topic discussion, and casual comments are not helpful and only serve as an ocean of muck to wade through when looking for gems years later. Even in the short-ish term, when I’m linked to a thread with 97 replies I don’t want to spend an hour reading through it just to get all the context.
Solutions
- As @Kovoschiz points out, it would be nice to “collapse” off-topic conversation. Allow the side-convos to occur, but fold them up after a while if they aren’t contributing to the original question.
- Move off-topic chains to their own thread, as was done recently. This really only works for longer sequences of comments, though - It doesn’t make sense for individual replies.
- Extend the “Accepted Answer” functionality to all topics. I don’t know if Discourse allows this, but it could at least serve to highlight the eventual (possible) agreed-upon consensus.
- What else? Let me know what you think.
or 
reactions.