another thought...
whats the point in just locking threads?? it would be a 100 times better if you had a trash can at the bottom and just put all old threads in there, or simply delete them when they're dead...
you can go take a look in ANY forum and find thread after thread that simply have no use anymore because they are so outdated...
as a new member, one of the things i looked at when i was joining forums was the dates of the threads.. this helped me determine how active the site really was... even though this site is pretty darn active, there is STILL a ton of dead threads that could be removed...
just a thought
Chris