What if I create an Off-Topic -> Chat section which doesn't contribute to post count, is ignored from unreadposts by default, hides signatures, and has some additional unpaid mods pulled from the Wall Observers regulars? It'd be exempt from some of the rules in order to allow for the chatroom-like style.
I find it amazing that owners and various moderators seem to NOT recognize value in a thread that seems to have the most participation. Even just considering the matter from an owners point of view, isn't there value in that? There are quite a few instances of of members who would come back into the WO thread after 1 or 2 years of non-participation in the forum, and that would be their "go to" location to post. Also, newbies post in that thread, and may not post in any other thread. I even saw that thread cited as a bitcoin news source in more than one articles.
So what's the reason for preemptively locking the thread, and THEN having the discussion about whether to move it etc?
A thoughtful way to approach this would be to have a post linking out to a discussion like this, leaving the thread open and a timeout (maybe) on locking.
This is a GREAT suggestion. Leave the thread tentatively open, until an alternative can be considered, and it seems that just putting the thread in Off-topic - could be a solution, even though I really am having some difficulties understanding what the problem is just leaving the topic where it is, and maybe just getting a volunteer to be the new moderator of the thread - someone active in the thread could be the new moderator.. there are all kinds of decent candidates that would likely just moderate the extreme and just leave most posts alone....