> ... frequently expresses alarm at the slightest deviation from a thread's original topic
Brutus, for me it depends very heavily on the type of drifting, and I also do some drifting myself:
Kath Howard3, "Still no supervision in the French and Spanish forums?" #342, 10 Mar 2008 6:31 am
and see also messages 9 through 19 in the now closed Slow, slow, slow! topic.
However, I strongly oppose to drifting involving personal attacks, which is quite a different matter. I don't express alarm when I see it happen in this particular forum, I express my clear protest.