The regular Wednesday evening forum for asking questions about how this place works, and get them answered.
Q: What is an Open Thread? And what is openthread?
A: An Open Thread is something posted to the front page several times a day with no subject in particular. It's just a place to chat. Comment about anything or everything, without being yelled at for "being off-topic".
openthread is the automatic bot which posts many of the Open Threads. Based on its occasionally erratic behavior, some people have posited that openthread is a malignant (or at least mischievous) intelligence. The evidence is inconclusive.
-dms