The solution is for participants to be civil, mature and on-topic as much as can be reasonably expected. When I say that, note that I've always been a supporter of occasional deviations that let a thread "breathe" or defuse tensions... as long as the thread returns to something productive. Unfortunately, some posts act like a cancer cell and if they resonate with enough participants, it's off to Off Topic the thread ends up going once the cancer spreads. I don't like it, but sometimes there's no other recourse.

/back on topic