rathole

[from the English idiom "down a rathole" for a waste of money or time] A technical subject that is known to be able to absorb infinite amounts of discussion time without more than an infinitesimal probability of arrival at a conclusion or consensus. "That's a rathole" (or just "Rathole!") is considered a pre-emptive bid to change the subject. The difference between ratholes and {religious issues} is that a holy war cannot be pre-empted in this way. Canonical examples are XML namespaces and open-source licensing.

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