Yes, the real shame is the disservice to the original poster

You are so very right - the real shame of what happened is that the poor original poster became secondary and ended up having her plea for help shunted over to a debate forum.  As Luella told me, if she were a new member who had that happen and saw such acrimony and lack of respect or decorum, she might well turn away and never come back.  I surely hope that has not happened with the original poster.

I wish that moderators had an option to move part of a thread or individual messages to another forum.  Moving the part of the thread that gets caught up in debate (and worse) would probably be the best and most viable option.  As it stands right now, moderators can either edit posts, hide individual messages or else hide a message and all replies.  In my opinion that sometimes leaves us with choosing the least bad option.  I think I will make the suggestion to the WM to give us an option of moving a portion of a thread to a debate forum.

BTW, it wasn't me who moved the thread here, though I don't disagree with the move.