Given the recent flurry of mod notes and threats over allegedly off-topic posts, I have to say that the main reason people “have trouble staying on-topic” is that it’s become so narrowly defined that having a meaningful conversation on many subjects is becoming impossible. It essentially becomes an exercise in trying to guess where the shifting invisible line is and getting in trouble when you inevitably cross it because the neat divisions we are being told to follow simply don’t exist. The United States and Israel are bombing Iran thread being the most prominent example I’ve notice of this, seeing that it keeps getting locked like clockwork since talking about the subject and “staying on topic” doesn’t work, at least not how they’ve been defined. Seriously talking about the war is being “off topic”, which is why the thread keeps getting hit.
And it definitely seems strongly politically biased as well.