Regarding "open threads"

As last week's comment threads showed, the best and most interesting discussions took place not on the "open thread" but on those with particular, focused topics.  So going forward, that's probably what I'll do, though I'll try to do a couple each week, time (for moderating) permitting.  I may, of course, do some future threads on some of the topics that tend to produce the more heated responses (e.g., gender and hiring), but I do fear the open threads tended to become obsessively focused on that to the exclusion of other more important topics.