I think the Bear Pit serves a useful purpose. We continue to have robust debate on the Big Board but as soon as posts become a continuation of personal vendetta then it’s off to the Bear Pit. Seems to work well. Like most people I don’t open Bear Pit threads so people who cannot play nicely lose their audience. All good.
It's a problem when long running threads get moved, though, as it's possible to find yourself in the Bear Pit without knowing that's where you are. Happened to me one day: loaded up NSC, saw I had Thumbs / Replies in a thread I'd been active in the day before. Clicked through from the notifications and replied to a reply I'd had, wasn't until I got a further reply back telling me it was in the Pit that I found out it had been Pitted.