Personally I think Jacko's nailed it pretty well, it's not so much the abuse of the system that has raised the visibilty as the silly attempt to describe it as perfectly normal.
I also think that if you believe a thread that keeps going is annoying, then you should avoid reading it and leave those who wish to keep it going to do so... nobody is forcing anyone to read anything on Pprune for heaven's sake, if the discussion offends you in some way then why are you taking part in it? At one point I thought we were going to get a whole page of people asking when the thread would end, an oblivion that might have occurred had those complaining about the thread forbore from posting on it and bringing it back to the top each time. It isn't rocket science chaps....
Dave