I just saw the option down near the bottom of the front page and got curious. I’ve seen plenty of closed threads, but what could possibly cause a forum to be locked?
Well, I imagine if we ever get that archive of really old posts together, that’s what we’ll do – move them to a locked forum.
Just once.
In the 1960s… you know.
NOT gonna say it.
Nope.
TubaDiva
But I was tempted.
Maybe the SDMB doesn’t. but some vBulletin-based sites will lock individual forums for maintenance. They might, for example, want to purge threads older than a certain date and not want new posts slowing down that process.
There are some extra forums at SDMB. There used to be archive forums that were read-only, which I guess would show up as locked. And currently there are some hidden forums for the mods, which on other sites are visible in the forum list but can’t be viewed without the right permissions.
You mean this “archive” ?
There was a forum UNlocked for time — the super-secret moderators’ cave was exposed for just a brief spell.
Ooooh. Was it all sparkly and colorful with stalagtites made of pure chocolate? 'Cause that’s what my super-secret cave would be like.
What? :dubious:
Nah, it was filled with (very put-upon looking) goats.
Hey, you take that back! Them goats like it when we bring 'em out! 
A “lock” is different from invisible. Locked means no posts may be made. Invisible means that only persons with the proper access privileges are able to view it. The mod forum has never been locked; it is always invisible to the general membership (or rather, it is supposed to be).
So you expect us to believe in an invisible sparkly cave filled with chocolate stalagtites?
I mean, not that I’m against it or anything. It’s kind of comforting.
Corr
(“credo qui consolans” never meant this much before!)
And Ponies! ( You left out the Ponies. You cannot do that. The Ponies will cry.)
An important distinction to be sure.
There’s always the fun “forum 15”.
For people who complain about our mods and admins being overzealous, I would like to say that I have seen other forums using the same software where the posting situation gets so out of hand that they do, indeed, lock a forum to get people to walk away from the keyboards and cool down.
And how exactly is a magical invisible forum that has no connection to the rest of the message board different from a forum that doesn’t exist?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
So, what’s a stalagtite? Is it something that starts at the floor of the cave, and then goes down from there? Or does it start at the ceiling and point up?
Actually they only form in the tunnels under Colonel Hogan’s quarters.
And yes, they are made of chocolate. Yummy swiss chocolate.
Okay, German chocolate probably would have been more appropriate.