Unrelated conversations in the response thread

I think it is just like real life conversation. In person you don't talk strictly about Subject A. You start off talking about A which reminds you of B which leads into C. It is how friendships are formed.

I don't think that is the case at all, being against the rules, that is. In fact, I think that is EXACTLY how a real discussion in real life works, and that is how they should work here. You write a post about banana bread. I respond, "Ooh, I like banana bread. Really good with butter." You respond back, "I prefer margarine." I respond back, "But margarine is one molecule away from being plastic, and I just can't eat it." You say, "I can't eat plastic either, but so long as what I am eating tastes like butter, I am okay with it." I say back, "Tupperware on bread sounds fantastic." And suddenly the conversation in the thread becomes about how you sold Tupperware and made no money on it. That's just how real conversations or 'discussions' work. I still stand by my thought that this is not a writing site and that we are supposed to have conversations that wander here just like they do in real life. I also do not think it is about making the pennies. I think it is simply engaging a 'discussion' that just so happens to earn pennies when we actually treat the post as a discussion.

Discussing is not against the rules and some of those conversations are hilarious. I have re-read the guidelines and this practice does not seem to violate the rules.

You have a point considering the payment system the myLot owner has chosen. I started my online writing career on a site on which one earned money only by writing posts. This was when the internet was still young and people were overenthusiastic. The comment threads could go on endlessly. I remember one which had more than 11.000 (eleven thousand) entries! People forgot to go to bed but went on writing. It didn't take long and nobody remembered what the initial post was about.

Some of the most interesting and hilarious discussions happen when the subject gradually changes. A response is a response.

I am new here, sometimes when I post something, some responses are like: "How are you doing"!!!!!

That seems to happen frequently, and sometimes people are talking to each other, and it isn't really related to the thread.Theyt all count as responses though, so I guess it's all good!

I guess it is up to myLot's owner to decide the rule. My thinking is that it's a discussion site. My favourite way to spend time here is to be in a discussion that meanders all over the place, just like a real discussion with a friend. The discussion ends up with nothing to do with the opening.

There's nothing against that in the rules as far as I know; and I have been guilty of it myself.

I always find these sort of conversations interesting because you never know where the discussion is leading. It starts with one subject and turns into some completely different.