This thread is closed [an actual new thread]

[Ethan Furman]

On 10/01/2018 04:26 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
 > Ethan Furman writes:

 >> This thread is closed.
 >
 > Coming from a moderator of this forum, I don't know how that statement
 > is to be interpreted.

It should be interpreted as:

- No further discussion should take place on this thread.
- I've done what I can with the primitive tools at hand to block
   any further discussion.
- Continued considerate posts will be discarded.
- Continued flame-bait/inconsiderate posts will be met with warnings
   or stronger as warranted.

 > Is that a statement that it is *impossible* (mechanically) to post
 > replies in this thread? Across the different technologies that
 > propogate this forum?

Not impossible, no.

 > If not impossible, is that a statement that it is *strictly 
prohibited*, by a forum moderator, to post replies in this thread?

If one tries to get around moderators' efforts to shut down a thread we 
will interpret that harshly.

 > If prohibited, what are we to expect are the consequences of breaching
 > that prohibition, knowingly or unknowingly?

Two factors come into play:
1) do we think the post was done knowingly or unknowingly; and
2) the content of the post.

 > How is any of the above affected by posting in the same thread but on
 > a different matter, as I have done?

At this point the blocks are entirely based on subject lines (like I 
said, primitive).  If the new subject line still matches the relevant 
regex, then it will get held and we will decide what to do with it (I 
allowed this one as it had good questions -- in general, just start a 
new thread if the subject is different, as I did in this reply).

 > How is any of the above affected by changing the Subject field, as I
 > have done?

If the subject is different enough it will get by the block.  If the 
content is still on the old subject we will consider that as willfully 
ignoring the thread closure.

 > If there is some specific formal meaning to the above statement, I
 > don't know where it's documented. If it's not a specific formal
 > statement, that is itself troubling, because it's not clear what would
 > constitute a violation nor what the consequences are.

Consider it now documented, at least on Python List.  I imagine Python 
Ideas may also implement this framework (assuming we stay on Mail Man 
and don't migrate to some web-based forum).

 > Ethan, I thank you for doing the fraught work of a moderator of this
 > forum. Hopefully we can get clarity on this and future thread-closing
 > actions, separate from the thread which prompted this instance.

Let me know if anything is still unclear.

--
~Ethan~