I am getting very frustrated by locked threads, too. Unless there is a violation of the rules posted, I don't care if the thread is about potties, or started by a troll, or resurrected from 15 years ago. THREADS SHOULDN'T BE JUST ARBITRARILY LOCKED. The ONLY two reasons why a thread should be locked is because A) It violates the rules of the forum and is beginning to create HIGH tension and anxiety (ie: Politics, Religion, Sex), or B) There is another thread that was already started on the same topic and it's within the first 2 pages, in which case lock it if it's one post, merge it if there is dicussion.
VentureForth,
Threads are rarely "arbitrarily" locked. And in fact, most times if they are locked it is either after the entire staff has discussed the issue or it is locked by one pending the further discussion of the staff. The same thing can also happen via hiding either specific posts or the entire topic. Hidden posts may or may not be restored, depending on the issue. Hidden topics are almost always restored, once the issues that caused it to be hidden have been dealt with.
That said, I do regret to inform you that we have slightly different standards than the ones that you outlined. Sorry!
However, as a few other people have noted and I have personally seen myself, by comparison to some other railfan forums, we lock very few threads here. And I can promise you, like I did TVM, that I will always be happy to discuss things further in private if someone disagrees with a locking. I make no promises other than to discuss things, but I am willing to discuss.
I tried to do that once on another forum that I won't mention, even pointing out to the Admin who locked the thread because he thought it some railfan's fantasy that it was actually true and I provided a link to the source, and the Admin basically told me "he didn't realize that it was true, but he couldn't be bothered to reopen the topic either." And it wasn't my thread, I was defending another person. That left a really bad taste in my mouth, which is one reason that I rarely go there anymore. And again, why I promise to discuss and seriously consider the other side.