In the past few weeks I've locked a handful of threads, and a few people have shown some concern about some of the threads being locked. Here I'm going to provide a brief explanation for why some of these threads were locked so that we're all on the same page here.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...rs-184621.html

Almost any threads that are a discussion of play money are going to turn into flame and troll fests. Whether this is how it should be or not is up for grabs maybe, but my opinion is that if anyone is interested in learning poker, the only role of play money is to learn the rules and see how the game mechanics operate.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...er-184601.html

Getting screwed out of rakeback is a very sensitive subject for me since I've seen so many people lose out on so much money simply because they didn't know any better. These no deposit bonus type agreements are a great way to trick people into handing over thousands of dollars in rakeback.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ve-184548.html

We've heard it over and over before that someone beating some level of live play thinks that online poker is rigged or something. I actually let this thread go on longer than I should, since I don't normally like locking threads if I think they'll die down on their own without causing much trouble.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...bc-184570.html

This was basically spam, though someone seemed pissed off about me locking it. Maybe it was a duplicate account of the OP?

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...lo-184557.html

Another spammer. I'm including this one in the list so you can get perspective on why some of the other threads were locked.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...re-184403.html

When someone with a low post count makes a bunch of threads with very thin questions, it's usually the sign of someone trying to just get into the freerolls and guaranteed tournaments. Even without that, there are plenty of pre-flop strategy links in the stickies.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...er-184525.html

This was a standard whining thread I thought. I'm not really sure why anyone would want me to not lock this one.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...on-184526.html

With really overly general questions that have no answer because there are too many shades of gray to cover, I'm inclined to lock the thread and suggest that the player posts some hands instead. This allows the player involved to get real answers to his questions instead of generalities that don't really help anything.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...nd-184528.html

The same situation here. The question is way too general for there to be any kind of answer that can help anyone. It simply depends on too many factors.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ce-184666.html

If I left this thread open, then it would invite whining and biased comparisons of full ring and short-handed play. There have been almost identical threads in the past, and that's what has always happened, so I cut it off before it could happen in this one.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...rs-184592.html

A few times a year we've had someone post talking about being unemployed and wanting to use poker to get some income going. The answer is always the same, because if they have to ask, they shouldn't be trying to play as their main source of income. Looking out for the best interests of the OP, I've gotta lock it.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...fq-184095.html

When this thread was posted, it seemed like a really general question that should have a post in the digest or FAQ explaining it. Then I realized that there was no digest thread that discussed AF and AFq, so I added one to it, then linked to the newly digested (bam) thread for further discussion.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ll-184556.html

This is probably the one I feel the least happy about locking. About 10-15 minutes before I saw this thread, someone was whining to me about how impossible it was to grind up from the micros to small stakes NLHE. They annoyed me a bit, and it probably influenced my decision in locking this thread. I've since unlocked the thread and contributed to it.