What is a "locked topic"? Does that mean no one else can post replies about it?

Oh, also, what does the black dot over the topic envelope-icon thingy mean?

correct.

You posted in it.

Neat, never knew that

Cool! I learned something new too!

Means someone been very naughty.

That true freedom of speech is not tolerated on VJ!

It's not tolerated in the workplace or in social settings or out in public, either.

Nor on privately owned message boards.

In all seriousness, the admin and mods don't actually interfere that much and lock tons of threads all the time.

That's your opinion! I have never had a problem speaking my mind in any of the situations you speak of.

This topic is highly sensitive for me. It completely bothers me to no end. Who decides what is offensive?

TRUE story: Several years ago, I was on a board. A lady had made a post about the fact that her dog had died. She had the dog for a long time and felt it was a part of her family. She spoke about hoping to see her dog in heaven some day. Some rude jerk replied. He told her basically, dogs don't go to heaven and is just rotting away in whatever hole it was buried in. I came to the lady's defense stating, that was hardly needed. This lady just lost something very precious and special to her. I added, can you prove her dog isn't in heaven? I never swore, never cussed, only pointed out what a troll he was being. Well, I got thrown off the site for "pushing religious view points". Even though this was my first and only reference to religion I ever spoke of on the board. The troll, oh, he got to stay. I abhor censorship. My point: Even though the troll's words offended many, he had a right to voice his opinion. But I also had a right to state my disgreement. Free thought needs to be encouraged on all public forums and privately owned message boards not locked down because it might, gasp, offend. Can't stand the heat... Well you know what to do.

We let things go pretty far in general as free speech is a great thing. We only suspend people for serious offenses of the TOS or for repeated violations. Closing threads is a last resort when things have gotten out of line and far off the original topic. We try to describe in the TOS as much as possible things so as to remove ambiguity. Ultimately if trolls post crazy things or if someone really goes past a social decency level then we may have to act. I hope it makes sense why this is the policy on this as well as most boards online.