if something has the potential of going off track the mods lock it down premtively
Well, let's see. Even though the OP's question was about thread views, the thread seems to have evolved (as happens sometimes) to more of a discussion of why threads here get locked. So we'll examine that a bit. It might be helpful.
Say a thread goes off the road, across the ditch, through the fence, into the pasture, and kills a cow or two. What to do- lock it, or let it go till things get so bad it's necessary to delete half the posts in the thread to clean it up, and then issue infractions, warnings, bans etc to members as well?
It takes less time to close a thread that's looking green around the gills than it does to let it run till it assumes rigor mortis and then try to bring it back to life. It's been my experience here that once a thread begins to go bad, even trying to fix it is not going to keep the "previous suspects" from dragging it into the ditch and strangling it again.
And it's a pain to ban people, send PM nastygrams, issue infractions/warnings and all that other stuff. Frankly I'd rather not do it, and I'd be willing to bet there are some people here who have gotten by with deleted posts and closed threads that would otherwise garner them infraction points and warnings in other places on THR. But I can change that if necessary.
Unfortunately I don't have all day to spend here, I have a life in the real world that demands most of my time. So, given the two choices discussed above (close a sick thread, or try to fix it later and hope it won't deteriorate again), I'm going to take the one-click-close approach almost every time, if a thread looks too far gone. Keep in mind that when staff delete a post, or half the posts on a thread, those deletions are only visible to other staff, not to members.
When I have to clean out a thread here (most often one that gets moved here from elsewhere on the board, not often one that originated here), you will often see an "incredible shrinking thread" note from me, as well as any reminder that seems necessary regarding proper conduct on the thread. Only staff can see indications that a post or posts have been deleted, and as a rule I will completely remove a problem post here rather than try to edit it to 'fix it.' Once again- it's quicker to 'delete' than it is to 'fix.' Naturally it's even quicker to just read all the new posts on a thread, nod happily, and go on to the next thread.
Pretty much all that's necessary to get along well here is to 1) read the rules for posting on S&T, and 2) try to keep on topic, be serious, focused, helpful, informative etc. rather than bloodthirsty, chest-thumping, snide, disrespectful, off topic etc. (and don't say "zombie" or "SHTF").
When it's all said and done, it isn't staff who kills threads here. Members who misbehave, either deliberately or accidentally, kill threads.
I say over and over, most frequently in warning PMs- S&T is not your little brother's Internet. There are plenty of other places on the 'net to find that sort of behavior, and we don't need it here.
hth,
lpl
