What Causes Threads to be Locked in Online Forums?

[phinds]

This thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/wavefunction-spreading-speed-in-material-mediums.889466/

when clicked on opens normally, with the full set of buttons ("reply", etc) and no indication that it is locked but in the forum it says it is locked

 

[berkeman]

Sorry for the temporary confusion, phinds. I temporarily locked the thread when looking into a report by a senior physicist about the thread -- Mentors sometimes use the Thread Lock feature as a semaphore as we look into the thread while deciding what to do with it. In this case I unlocked it within a couple minutes deciding to let the other Mentors deal with the post report.

If a thread will be locked for more than a couple of minutes, we will usually post in the thread that the thread is locked for Moderation. In this case, I unlocked it relatively quickly to release the semaphore for other Mentors to deal with it.

BTW, what were you going to reply with...

 

[Evo]

He was going to say that Berkeman is awesome and one of the nicest mentors we have.

 

[berkeman]

LOL. Hopefully he was going to say something else to @Gerinski in reply...

 

[phinds]

He was going to sat that Berkeman is awesome and one of the nicest mentors we have.

Well, that's a given, of course.

I rarely know when I open a thread whether I even will have any thing intelligent(1) to say but as a separate issue I like to know why threads are locked so I always take a look at them.

Thanks for the explanation of what was confusing me.

1) I should note, and I know that it will come as no surprise, that a lack of anything intelligent to say rarely shuts me up.