As a subjective indication I got the feeling that the quality postings somewhat reduced recently.
Could it be that more frequent open threads discourage from self-contained postings?
That would imply that "comments inevitably expand to fill the available room" because this effect is increased.
That would argue against adding the Links subsection, but asking stupid questions and asking for advice certainly aren't going to be their own posts.
This week's open thread is less than a day old, and has already accumulated more comments than the 15 latest non-open-thread posts combined. I fear the thread will wither and die before Friday.
Going from monthly to weekly open threads was a big hit. Should we ratchet up open thread frequency even more? Should we add more outlets for comments, or will comments inevitably expand to fill the available room?
Proposal for discussion: We follow a regimen of weekly blather threads for the next two weeks, then reassess.
Addendum
I posted a Links on Friday and a Stupid Questions on Monday. In the 5 post-days that they've been up, they've accumulated 32 comments. Based on these numbers, it seems unlikely that these topical open threads will relieve pressure on the main Open Thread and so I've stopped the experiment.