It seems to me that there’s a miscommunication here. It looks to me that the OP did want a debate. His issue was not that @Oredigger77 disagreed with him. It was that his post just the typical “the real problem is mental health” reply. And, like those replies, it didn’t actually contain any attempt at a solution.
I mean, I agree that mental health is a problem with shooters But what is the plan to try and treat that problem? What policies are you saying would help? Without that, such posts don’t help the conversation.
@UltraVires’s post also seemed uninterested in proposing a solution. It also didn’t contain anything debatable. Yeah, that’s how the Court responded. Nice to know, but there’s not really anything to respond to as as debate.
That said, I will say that @lissener would do well to be more clear about these things. The miscommunication wasn’t entirely the readers’ fault. His first reply can also come across like “Mental health isn’t the issue, and you’re not allowed to talk about it,” for example. He’d do well to actually explain himself without the attitude that those who were responding to him were lesser.
I do understand the frustration when you make a thread to talk about one topic and it gets hijacked by someone. And I understand being frustrated with a particular poster who has a Pit thread about the same behavior he has in your thread.
However, I would suggest that the rant that @What_Exit replied to would have been better served if posted in said Pit thread. It makes sense to me that a thread be closed if the OP says said thread had been ruined, and was very close to the line of pitting said poster, calling them a bully.
I do think that the mods should consider how they moderated DrDeth in that thread. I note he was modded for a behavior, told that he’d get a Warning if he did it again, but then doesn’t appear to have been given a Warning. It was also noted that this behavior was disingenuous, arguing the poster said something they didn’t.
I would suggest that perhaps a better solution would be to have kicked him out of the thread.
Finally, I don’t think the fact the OP has abandoned a topic (or, as was assumed, was uninterested in debate on said topic) should necessarily mean the thread should be closed. If other posters are willing to debate the topic, why not let them?
Anyways, those are my thoughts.