Add feature to allow mods to lock a single comment thread

[kaiser1245]

Requirements

• Is this a feature request? For questions or discussions use https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support
• Did you check to see if this issue already exists?
• Is this only a feature request? Do not put multiple feature requests in one issue.
• Is this a backend issue? Use the lemmy-ui repo for UI / frontend issues.

Is your proposal related to a problem?

Commenters who are involved in an argument often feel the need to "get the last word" or retaliate when moderators step in. Moderators can remove the comments, but often no rules are being broken and it's possible that good discussion might be lost with removal. Locking the entire post can stop other comment threads which may not be contentious.

Describe the solution you'd like.

Adding the ability to lock replies to a top level comment could allow discussions to cool down, or give mods time to clean up threads which are becoming a problem.

Describe alternatives you've considered.

locking all comments, removing comments.

Additional context

No response

[dessalines]

This already exists.

[SorteKanin]

@dessalines not sure what you mean by that? This feature definitely doesn't exist. There is a feature to lock a thread, but that's only a whole thread, not a single comment. This feature proposes that you should be able to mark a single comment as locked and then you wouldn't be able to reply to that comment any more (unless you are a mod/admin). But you would still be able to reply to other comments on the same post.

[dullbananas]

Seems correct. I can't find the button, and there's nothing for comment locking in the database tables.

[dessalines]

Ah, sorry for my misunderstanding, I always use thread to mean the same thing as post, and refer to all the comments.

But yes we don't have anything in place to lock specific branches with all their children for comments, only locking the entire post.

That could actually get pretty complicated because a reply to a sub-branch would have to go up the chain to check if any parent comments are locked before allowing a comment, not just the immediate parent. Not to mention the federation-related issues with comments rather than posts being locked.

Don't see myself working on this but if anyone else wants to, go right ahead.

[aeharding]

That could actually get pretty complicated because a reply to a sub-branch would have to go up the chain to check if any parent comments are locked before allowing a comment, not just the immediate parent. Not to mention the federation-related issues with comments rather than posts being locked.

IIRC Reddit does not lock recursively. Just the direct parent you are replying to. IMO that is the logic I would prefer (similar to comment removal).

Use case: there are times when I just want to lock a single inflammatory comment, then reply to that comment as a mod with reason for locking, but still allow users to reply to my comment as a mod.