I think it might be a lot more frustrating for the OP when their thread takes on a life of its own, especially when the original post/question is lost in what I like to refer to as ‘white noise.’
For those who merely joined a discussion, there’s thankfully always, always the option of unfollowing/ignoring.
THAT.
The WFD threads have been thread-drifty since way before HO came into existence.
It’s like a conversation at the Thanksgiving dinner table where you have 25 people there, plus a table of kids.
People haven’t seen each other since the last holiday meal, they’re passing dishes and enjoying the food, catching up, half-listening to other conversations and joining in on occasion, making sure the little kids aren’t throwing peas and mashed potatoes, talking about now surly teenagers who used to throw peas and mashed potatoes, pouring more wine (a LOT more wine for those adults dealing with thrown peas and mashed potatoes), arguing about football teams, cleaning up the dishes, sacking out on the couch after eating too much turkey dinner, drawing with a marker on Uncle Joe’s face while he’s snoring on the couch…
Thread drift. It’s a given. Unless the entire thread’s original purpose is completely shot to shit, just SOB.
And
That’s probably what I dislike the most. If you’re posting in a thread, at least make some semblance of a response to the OP. But often they don’t, and that’s unfair to the OP, in many cases, especially if they’re asking a specific question. There are some who use a thread as a platform for their brain dump that has little to do with the original post. That’s frustrating to me, and scrolling past copious amounts of blah blah leads me to often leave the thread.
Came here to say pretty much this. When I open a thread, it’s because I’m interested in what’s being said on that topic, not whether someone randomly remembered this thing their Great Aunt Martha did that one time.
So I don’t mind tangents that branch off. I feel less warmly toward the ones that spring up a half mile away.
Great Aunt Martha and Uncle Joe have a tendency to dislodge a straight and narrow thread with their antics. 
Well, there appears to be a good catchall thread for those, though, judging from the 1.6k+ posts in What’s on your mind?.
I don’t think anyone goes there expecting to learn about knives, the best way to soft-boil an egg, or recos for their next NOLA vacay… so in a way it’s the perfect dumping ground for all that is peripheral 
Well put. I agree.
I see this as well.
Agreed. But it doesn’t quite catch all. Is my point.
It seems to quite literally be about what’s on posters’ minds, so who are we to define whether it’s still OT or tangential? 
The thing about that thread is that the topic itself is OT.
But occasionally it’s even about food!
Occasionally being the key word there.
What I meant was that all the random stuff should end up on What’s On Your Mind. But it doesn’t. It often finds its way elsewhere.
I do rather enjoy thread drift and am guilty of it myself.
Also try to follow some parameters as to when it is okay and when it’s not to keep peace on the platforms.
This my interpretation:
When thread drifts are a good thing:
After the OP’s question has been answered 
Once the thread has developed roots
When the thread drift is not preferable:
If I don’t know the OP 
Trashing professional’s personal lives
Authentic or traditional vs unconventional or Modern
Some of us have debated answering the OP’s question at all, on another thread, because it probably is not a good idea.
I always answer the OP’s question followed by I don’t recommend it and present my side and let the OP make the final decision.
Sometimes we don’t understand a poster’s posts and that’s okay scroll on by and come back you just might like what you see and want to join in. Just give the thread a chance to blossom.
Perhaps PM/DM the poster and explain what you don’t understand and a light bulb just might go off for them on how to explain and clarify more because others may have the same question as you do.
On the WFD thread there was a controversial off topic (that well I brought up) and I chose to create a new thread to open it up to another audience.
Also not to create havoc and chaos on “their” thread out of respect for them and everyone else.
Trashing a professional’s life is not ok if personal attacks are not allowed here. The same rule should apply to the former.
My experience with Authentic and Unconventional is it never plays out well because people are very proud of their heritage(understandably) and are easily offended. That is better left on a separate thread as to not yuck on a cooking thread’s yum.
With of course, the chain link can be added to that thread if anyone wishes to read it.
I was recently a part of something very exciting because I was shopping for a new knife. I decided to create a thread Misen vs Mercer Knives after 2 days I couldn’t believe the views. At the 5 day mark I think it was over 900 views. That was awesome to see.
From that thread @Vecchiouomo decided to create :
*How is a Home Cook Different from a Pro? Does Professional Instruction benefit a home cook?
*Knife Talk was the new topic that was separated into a new thread from Misen vs Mercer
From knife talk this thread was created:
*How Do You Stop From Tearing Up When You Cut A lot Of Onions
And someone got Excited from all the Knife discussions (there are many more) and made a comparison thread:
*My “One Knife” Recommendation
Wow to think that I was a very small part of that is extremely rewarding.
Thread drift is wonderful in the right situation.
Now there’s a thread that I deactivated a long while back so it doesnt on my list of “latest” threads. Just not interested.
That’s where all the fun is 
Life Is Like A Box O’ Choco-lates.
More seriously, @Phoenikia - I don’t mind thread drift in my own threads. I try (sometimes unsuccessfully) not to propagate it in others’ threads. Especially in the case mentioned by @Midlife where a very specific advice is requested.
As for
I tend to stick only to the cooking and cookware threads, so I can’t speak for the regional ones, but in the cooking/wares threads I’ve only seen one person recently asking to get back on topic and suggesting that the OT discussions should be diverted into new discussions. And I’m a bit suspicious there may have been hidden motives for those requests.
That is why I tend to stay in that small corner of the fish tank. I know my place. Thanks again to Respectfully. I have so many ideas for new topics but it is probably best that I don’t know how to do that. Did have a question though. Tangent alert. I finally for the first time ever managed to post a picture of a complete meal. But there is no place to like it. I am pretty clueless. I am not ever fishing for likes but as was said by some in the why do you like? thread I see likes more as a “roger that” How did I manage to somehow screw this up?
