[32winspl]

Hey guys, I haven't been on THR too long, but I've encountered a number of threads that have been locked up by you moderators. I don't generally dispute why you've chosen to shut them down, but I am curious as to why, if they should be closed, you choose to allow them to be read after the fact?
Thank you for your response.

[XavierBreath]

I'll give you an answer for myself.

We have the option of making the thread disappear. Sometimes we take that option. When it is used, the thread actually goes to a repository where the staff can still access it and act on it as required.

Unfortunately, when a thread disappears, members waste time looking for it, and often wonder what happened. Sometimes they simply restart the same thread, not realizing what took place. They do not have the opportunity to see what went wrong with the thread and why action was taken. When we close a thread, we usually leave a closing statement explaining why. That lets members know who closed it and why. If they want to PM the moderator asking for clarification, or to make an appeal, they can.

Sometimes these closings are the result of the thread going to the dogs, sometimes it is the result of discussions we have seen over and over again that we can predict will go to the dogs, sometimes it is because of outright violations of our few rules. Sometimes a thread may have good and bad information in it, and we leave it up to the individual reader to decide which is which, rather than censoring that which we disagree with. We close the thread though, often to prevent future disagreement that may result in banning of otherwise fine members.

We also have the option of making individual posts disappear in much the same manner. We will often take that route if we think it will work.

We often merge duplicate threads, and move threads to appropriate forums.

Speaking of that, once I close this one (don't worry, other moderators can still respond) I will likely move it to Technical Support. I hope this has helped a bit to explain what we do and why we do it.

[Biker]

These matters are best taken to PM. Jus' so ya know...

Biker

[XavierBreath]

I merged your duplicate, thus Biker got his two pesos in.......;)

[Larry Ashcraft]

I don't know any moderators named "Ashcroft", but I'll respond anyway. ;)

If a thread is merely locked, as opposed to deleted, the members have a chance to learn what is and isn't acceptable here. The moderators' actions are somewhat transparent this way (Like moving a thread and leaving a redirect). That cuts down our workload by a bunch.