Comment by llamageddon01 on 22/10/2021 at 21:26 UTC*

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: The NewToReddit Encyclopaedia Redditica v2

Locked; Padlocked

Sometimes you will see a little yellow padlock icon on a post. This is because it has been locked by the moderators. You should note that:

No new comments by users can be posted on a locked post. Everything else about that post is unaffected, including voting.
Moderators and admins can still post comments on a locked thread.
Existing comments on a locked post can still be edited or deleted by their authors.
Moderators can unlock a locked post at any time, at which point new comments can be posted again.
An individual comment within a post can be padlocked, meaning nobody can reply to it but the rest of the post can remain open to new comments or replies.

Mods lock posts for many reasons. A post or comment may be locked if a moderation team see a violation of the subreddit's (or Reddit’s) rules; if a debate threatens to escalate into a flame war, or simply because it was a contest/vote/suggestions post in which submissions have ended. In mid 2021 on r/NewToReddit, we discovered that some new Redditors had been asking questions in old posts which never got an upvote, let alone an answer. Because of that, we started locking posts over 7 days old, giving the following reasons:

We want to keep the focus on fresh content. Posts won’t be removed so they can still be read but any new insights or questions won’t be lost to those who’ve read it and moved on.

New users need to gain Post Karma genuinely. They can only do that by actually making new posts!

New users need to gain Comment Karma, and having an active post will gain them more comment experience and karma than an inactive one.

It will reduce how many new questions get asked on older posts which might be completely overlooked.

Reddit also automatically locks all posts over 6 months old, and these will show a yellow box icon. Posts locked due to age can no longer be voted or commented on. This is actually optional[1] now, but don’t expect much response if you want to revitalise an old post as the only person seeing your comment will be the Redditor you’re replying to, and of course, Reddit doesn’t “bump” posts up the hierarchy in the way some forums or bulletin boards do.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/py2xy2/voting_commenting_on_archived_posts/

*See Also:**

Padlock[2]
Vote Arrows hidden or greyed-out on Posts[3]

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhcjypi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

3: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhuiz8x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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