For the first time in this site's existence, I've had to delete comments for being off-topic.

This followed a repeated warning about the off-topic nature of the comments, and a perfectly good opportunity was given for the commenter to change tack and post on-topic instead. The deletion is not due to what was being posted, but rather that it was being posted in the wrong place.

I'm afraid that, due to the nature of blogs, comment threads must be limited to the subject at hand; the discussion is impossible to follow any other way. If, at a future point, there is sufficient call for an open forum then we'll consider setting one up. But for now, as a matter of common courtesy to the people who take the time to write the blog posts, commentators are advised to keep to the matter at hand. Blatantly off-topic posts will not be tolerated; we're liberal, but we're not that liberal!