I think it's only right that a thread is closed or deleted when it goes way off topic and people start to make personal insults. I've seen many forums die because the administrators have not paid enough attention to what's going on in the forum.

On the other hand I have also experienced a forum dying because the administrators were too strict and flamed/banned anyone who didn't use correct grammar or generally asked too many "stupid" questions.

I think this forum has a very good balance.

The Dog House is the place for controversial subjects and as far as I've seen everyone gets their say and the thread dies down naturally because people either agree to disagree or they learn something.

-Varga