I venture in to Bitcoin Discussion fairly regularly. I find that sorting by newly created topics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=1.0;sort=first_post;desc) can help to find some actual discussion - it effectively filters out all the spam mega-threads.

The problem is every thread gets taken over eventually. I might get a couple of good back-and-forth discussion points going within a few hours, but within a day or two there will be a page or two of spam posts appearing between thoughtful posts. At this point I usually unwatch the thread and never return - I have no desire to filter through pages of trash to find the next original thought worth responding to.

I guess my point is that there is still some genuine discussion happening, it is just being drowned out by the crowd. I guess self-moderated topics might be the way to go? I might create a couple sometime.