A new feature has been introduced to help our admins to moderate the site better.
Sometimes, a discussion or topic starts well, but goes off into a tangent, gets unfocused, and sometimes continues forever into an unending insult/flame war. Admins cannot keep monitoring such a discussion/thread and keep removing unwanted posts at the tail end of that topic, and subsequent responses.
You will now see a new link called "Lock" next to "Add Bookmark". Using this, admins can "lock a blog entry". This will prevent users from continuing that thread. That whole entry...
more... (main + replies) does not need to be monitored anymore, since nobody can reply on that thread. Nothing is removed/deleted.
A discussion/topic starts, the main questions are answered, and then it is locked. We all can now move on to other blog entries/topics.
Note to admins: Please lock blog entries when you feel that all open questions have been answered, and nothing more of value can be added. Preferably, reply with a summary of the main points or a conclusion, and then "Lock that thread".
Hopefully this feature will help our admins control discussions and keep them focused.
@all other bloggers: This feature might help everyone in that threads won't get too long going, and then we don't have to waste time reading extra long discussions going nowhere or degenerating into an insult war.