It might well be the case that a few of you are spoiling it for the rest. Over the last 5 days, we have been dragged into one problem after the other. This is the off-season, and instead of being able to take a more hands-off approach, we find one regular after the other stepping well over the mark.
For a few weeks we did step back a bit, kinda, but it looks like some people keep seizing those moments to see who can get away with what. Having less distractions around, but people still keen to post, is causing all sort of odd side paths. And fewer people inevitably means that those that annoy you are in your face a bit more, which also is causing additional friction, it seems.
Since the few mods around PCs are getting fed up having to log-in hourly at the moment, for threads across the entire spectrum of the forum, you'll probably find that these mods are deciding that off-topic threads that indeed can be fun, or ought to be fun, but are starting to derail, are being dealt with.
The slapping thread falls under the category of threads that we have far too much experience with, threads that nose-dive sooner rather than later, and cause far too much friction here. Inevitably people name pet-peeves and pet-annoyances, including other people present on the forum, and away we go. It already has caused far too many log-ins for us to be classified as "just harmless fun". It is causing more trouble than it is adding worth to the forum. There are plenty of subjects left beyond "who deserves a slapping".