Stoat these puns now!
I’m not on board with this. The OP defines a thread topic in the first instance but should have no ownership over it and no special authority to junior mod.
I agree. But yes, a nicely worded request from him/her should be respected… unless the thread has* long *gone into a interesting and productive siderail.
No more than any other participants though.
This thread seems to have gone off track. I started it to get clarification of board rules. It now seems to be a lot of silly puns about otters.
If I as OP have any kind of ownership of the thread, can I please request that you keep em coming. 
My take on things: I’d errands on the side of caution and silently report the posts in question that were off topic. If any action was necessary, the mods would then take action.
After all, if in doubt, it doesn’t hurt to report, so the mods can make the decision.
The OP, however, may have more interest in keeping the thread on-topic. After all, it was the OP who started the topic, and that’s what the OP presumably wants to talk about.
It still shouldn’t give him or her any privileges greater than anyone else in the thread. If it’s okay for the OP to do something, it should be okay for anyone else in the thread to do it.
I’m not sure that’s for you to deet-ermine. But I guess some people are gluttons for pun-ishment.
A shrew 'd observation, I think the OP is ok to do this, so long as they don’t badger people.
.eta the ermine one was a thing of beauty, round of applause .
As Colibri says above, it all depends on the forum. When someone starts a thread in GQ, they are specifically trying to fight their own ignorance on a particular topic. If the topic goes off on a tangent, I believe that the OP should be able to politely point out that said tangent is not being helpful to them. Once the answer is given and the OP acknowledges that they understand the answer, than the topic can go wherever it meanders off to, but prior to that we should respect the OP.
Than you - although, I actually am prouder of theglutton one.
Respecting the OP and letting the OP mod the thread are two different things.