whenever a thread gets locked and someone asks why the mods say "do this over email"
I'll agree with that, but what the mods need to post when they lock a thread so that the person asking why knows who to email.
am I the only one who thinks that's a good idea?

recent example
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=157185

I agree with you. I've had threads closed in the past, and I've sent the email to all the mods asking about it. The only response I ever got was from a mod who didn't close it and gave a vague response as to why it may have been closed. I never heard from the mod who actually closed it and never found out why it was closed.

randyc resists the temptation to anonymously lock this thread

It's a good point and one we have been discussing in mod school. Sometimes it's hard to take the time to do this, and in the past there has been a reason a mod didn't.

If a mod feels the post was really horrific, it will be deleted from that forum. If locking it is good enough, then it will be locked, but replying to the thread also brings it to the very top. Sometimes we want threads to sink and go away for whatever reason. So that was a motivation to not add a post.

In the future, we will *try* to remember to add something like

[mod note: locking due to this thread being offensive to forum members, randyc]

and then people will know why, and who.

I think the cited case was just a matter of the mod taking for granted that people would know why the thread was closed. namja's "point 1" should be pretty well known by now.

I agree with this, sometimes it has seemed obvious to me why a thread is closed, but I have learned that it's not obvious to everyone.

I agree with RandyC, no reason to bump a bad thread up, but maybe the mods could edit the original post to put why the thread was locked...I don't think that would bump it up and that would also tell people who and why the thread was locked.

an edit is fine, but I think something should be there
although bumping a bad thread can also be a way of showing people what will get locked as people will look to see why, and then go "oh, I won't try that"

In the past, I had thought that locking a thread without posting a reason was sending a big message to the members = THAT IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS.

But, as randyc put it above, it's not obvious to everyone ...