Ask HN: Does the broken windows theory apply to online discussions/comments?

I have observed (empirically) that independent of the platform or specific type of content, all it takes for an discussion to get ugly/ irrelevant is a handful of comments that are beside the point or funny. I realize that the extent of disarray depends on factors such as moderation, vote/rank systems, etc. But I was wondering if there is an analogue of the broken windows theory for this phenomenon?