Here is the link to the last page of the thread.
I recognize that one of the ‘discussants’ has been banned but I don’t think it follows that the thread should be locked as a result. Clearly there are lots of precedents where the thread remained open in such circumstances.
I also acknowledge that anyone who wishes to carry on with the discussion could just open a new thread. My concern, though, has to do with new posters/members who may find opening a new thread a bit of a hurdle, or too much of a nuisance for them to go ahead. OTOH, it’s much simpler and more inviting for newbies (and established posters) to merely add their two cents to the end of an existing (and open) thread.
Despite the intellectual intransigence exhibited by a number of new posters in that thread, I think they had a net positive effect - people were encouraged to be very creative in coming up with ‘new’ proofs of 0.999 . . . = 1 and, of course, lots of very interesting tangents and discussions were opened up. None of this might have happened if the new posters in question had been compelled to open a new thread.
Please reconsider.
Thanks!
ETA: I forgot to say that I think it is certain that more people will be attracted here after discovering the thread (on, say, Google). If they find the thread locked, they may opt to just say “forget it”.
