I was able to find my very old posts on this forum but suddently, they are silently locked by an administrator or moderators! Why they lock very old posts without posting a reason for locking! Anyway, I posted the update about NIS silent mode log bug as new thread rather than replying in Norton Internet Security forum.
I think if the posts get far too old (Many years) beyond silent locking time and database disk space is near full, these posts will automatically be deleted (expunged) to save disk space.
You make it sound like we suddenly singled you out! We didn't.
It's true that once a month we set older content to read-only status. Specifically, any thread that has not had a new post added to it in the past 30 days is set to read-only. This means that depending on the time of the month there will be somewhere between 30 and 60 days of threads new threads.
Also consider, the lock is applied based last activity date, not first activity or the date the thread was created. For example, a thread started a year ago would still be unlocked and available for posting if it has had at least one new post a month.
Why do we do this? It's simply part of our content management strategies. We have not removed your content, it is still searchable and readable, and can be referenced by link. The mistake we are preventing is actually a time saver for most users. What happens is this: a newer user comes and searches, finds an old thread (that most likely is not as relevant as they think it is--more on that in a minute) and replies to it. Now in our example lets say that brings a thread of 45 posts, with the newest several months old, back to the top of the board listings, which will now be reviewed again by 100's of users.
With mechanisms like 'liveupdate' and windows updatein place today, a thread someone started months ago in this forum most likely is not the same issue as a user that is experiencing seemingly similar characteristics today.... and if it is the same issue then it has most likely had a new post in the last 30-60 days, meaning it will won't be locked.
This policy has been in place for almost 9 months. We rarely see comments or questions about it. While every forum is slightly different, we have seen this has been a policy adopted by more and more support oriented forums recently. Like I mentioned above with software delivery and update systems such as Windows Update and our own 'liveupdate' most of the threads that have become inactive really belong where they are.
Oh and BTW: In most cases we will usually unlock a specific thread for a user when asked . Assuming of course the topic is still relevent.
Thanks for the question! It's not a secret, and we don't mind talking about it.
Thank you so much! I understand about new policy. I will leave them as is because I already created new thread about Norton Internet Security updates. I am experienced computer user and know about these forums.
Perhaps with a bit more reading I would have a better undestanding but as it is fresh in my head may I ask, if there are older locked threads and related content comes along where new threads are begun on the same subject and the forum ends up with a large number of multiple (same or very similar) threads should there be or is there a way to organise or link all same/similar threads?
I was able to find my very old posts on this forum but suddently, they are silently locked by an administrator or moderators! Why they lock very old posts without posting a reason for locking! Anyway, I posted the update about NIS silent mode log bug as new thread rather than replying in Norton Internet Security forum.
I think if the posts get far too old (Many years) beyond silent locking time and database disk space is near full, these posts will automatically be deleted (expunged) to save disk space.
We didn't. 
