Basically if any testing thread was good enough to continue past page 3, there is no rule preventing people from creating a new thread explicitly for the continuation of the locked thread, as long as it is still just Testing bullshit. The fact that this has NEVER HAPPENED is sufficient proof that the page 3 lock is an inviolable and totally logical rule.
Hootfeet wrote:Are the mods really that desperate for things to do that they fight to hold on to a pointless task?
YES
RedImperator wrote:To be honest, I don't even remember why we instituted the Page 3 lock. I became a mod in...'05, I think, and I think the policy was already in place by then.
I believe we did because at that time Testing was actually a forum for posts testing BBcode and various other tasks, rather than being a RANK and DISGUSTING sewer pipe for the DREGS of the forum.
I have a vague idea that it started because people were making "+1" posts (literally; some people were posting "+1" and that's it) in threads.
I don't know, maybe so. I can't recall when the post-count resynch policy was instituted, which basically meant that any deleted posts (e.g. all posts in Testing) would not count.
This was back when anybody gave a shit about post counts. I remember some mods (shit, I may have been one of them, for all I know) getting deeply pissed off that people were padding out their post counts with content-free Testing posts*. So that's probably how it started, and it's definitely why Testing posts don't go to your post count anymore. The auto prune was added....I think it was added because it was easier than occasionally sending an admin into Testing to delete all the dead threads. I can't be sure about that one, though.
I think it's just a feature in BBcode that was added because it made sense.
But at any rate, if Testing posts don't go to post counts, and Testing automatically cleans itself out, then there's no reason left to keep the Page 3 lock. By the mods' own admission, its primary function is to provide a reason to lock threads for fun. Which, I gotta say, isn't much of a reason.
I think it also serves a purpose in that it kills discussions and creates a constant turnover of threads rather than letting the forum stew in its own juices.
*This is before we learned how to make content-free posts in every other forum. The trick is to just agree with everyone else, and you're golden.
Groupthink is magic, it is.