Follows ups - useful side conversations or a total distraction?

It seems to me that lots of threads have follow ups that distract from the OP's original post and steer the whole conversation into some off topic direction. Sometimes these OT followups get a life of their own and the OP is left without any decent answers to the original subject.

Often I read threads, only to find they are of no value unless you are interested in the hijacking follow up parts.

Frequently the follow ups lead to petty point making discussions. A recent follow up thread even had the topic of a few people complaining that they were missing out because private messages were sent. Nothing to do with the original post.
IMHO the whole follow up concept ruins the original threads most of the time.
If someone really wants to discuss something off topic why not start their own thread. I don't think this is any individual, it is just too easy for the original subject to get forgotten.

Have they outlived their usefulness? Am I alone in thinking this?

One or two other forums that are tightly mod'd like LCOOL keep on the topic and force users to start a new topic if the conversation strays. The threads are useful for years and stay alive and relevant.

Just a suggestion, but IMHO, if someone posts a follow up, then only the person being "followed up" can reply, and only once. Either that or just drop them altogether.

It would be much more user friendly to look at topics and hove some confidence that the subject represents the discussion. That is not really the case now. If someone really wants others to invest input into a subject then surely it is worth a separate thread.


What do others think?