> we don't want off-topic arguments and because it would be too easy to exploit it for shenanigans.

Are there any other reasons you mentioned? I only found this one.

Thinking about it, people replying to the post stake their reputation too in whatever they post. If we see a throwaway or newish account causing shenanigans, people interested in the job post can form their own opinion of the nature of the comment? (isn't that what downvoting is for too?).

Since threads have this nice toggle feature you can always click [-] to ignore whatever people is saying about a job posting.

That's two reasons! (1) It's offtopic, which is especially bad given that the threads are so comment-heavy; and (2) it's too easy to exploit.

I suppose exploit is not the right word, because a lot of it is people posting their grudges or bad feelings that they probably have perfectly legit reasons for, and yet are not the full story. We're not going to get the full story, or even a fair assessment, from a distracting back-and-forth in the middle of a job ads thread; and that's ignoring the point that most people posting to Who Is Hiring aren't in a position to respond to such complaints in the first place.

It seems to me easy to see that if we allowed it, there would be no limit to it, and the end result would be a bad scene indeed.