Is it just me, or is it a clear indication that a thread is ending its useful life is when people start debating the merits of the analogies that have been posed rather than the original subject matter of the thread?
Or, maybe a thread is exhausted when the analogies start to crop up.
No, it's not dead until some jackboot shows up and invokes Godwin. 
So, I have always wondered:
Can you invoke Godwin for every post on alt.politics.socialist.nazi? 
Warren.
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:38:12 +0000
From: Rainer Atkins
Is it just me, or is it a clear indication that a thread is
ending its useful life is when people start debating the
merits of the analogies that have been posed rather than the
original subject matter of the thread?
I move that we recognize this phenomenon as "Atkins' Law".
Apologies for further reducing the SNR,
Eddy