In light of recent forum events...

Ive noticed a pattern in forum posts/flames/discussions.  When a topic gets heated everyone finds an opinion and everyone involved must post. Those that respond to them require a retort.  That is natural, thats how debating works.

But, the pattern that occurs over and over is the same: After the first page of responses to a given post - no matter how heated - will tell the whole story. Pages 2 through 55 are all rehashes of the same posts in different words by different members.

So, a good reason to lock down a thread is when the conversation goes in circles. Its like the Lion King -  the circle of life - I tell my side, you tell your side, joe agrees with me, betty disagrees with me, bob agrees with joe, mark flames betty, sam yells at bob, sharon tells mark to go to hell, etc. But, in the end, its really just two posts: Opinion & Counter-Opinion.  When its obvious that everything that can possibly be said has been said its time to all shut down and find something more constructive to do.

Also, note, that usually after page two the same arguments are applied with either CAPSLOCK or swears.  A few pages later the personal insults begin to fly. So, it seems best to wrap up your remarks after page 2 because its all down hill from there.

Look at how the US political debates happen. Each person gets a timed response and then they move on.  There is a good reason for this: It will never end otherwise. Think of the thread lock as that bell going "ding! time up"

CodeMonkey