1. Fred over reacted. he shouldn't have locked the topic just because of one person. He could have sent a PM to Craig or given him a temporary ban.
It wasn't just craig.
A bunch of members started to post more and more off topic content in serious topics aswell. Every time we have some nice friendly forum game, some have to take it too far and venture in what can only be described as 'post boosting' and turning the forum into some kind of private playground.
It seems that every time we allow a more free approach in some part of the forum, that posting attitude also projects onto the other boards. And if someone has to be reminded three times or more, and still doesn't listen, then a line is drawn and then it's just game over, for such a topic. This is not some chatbox here, there are other sites for this purpose.
If everone had played the game as intented, it would have been a lot better, but too many nonesensical posts came up, where people would just post remarks of a few words, not proper sentences as intended.. And I heard that some are actually having a race to see who can rack up the most posts in the least ammount of time.
That's not what the forum is about, I am afraid. If some of you can't keep the irrelevant posts in the topics meant for it, and feels they must post off topic remarks in the same fashion that they do in these fun topics, then it's making a mess, and we step in. If that's what these games lead to, then maybe we shoul not have them. This is an official forum of a company, not some fan forum where anything goes. A lot of unsuited and nonesensical posts were already taken out from that topic during it's run, and it was being watched already. Craig just gave it a final push. If we can't keep it tidy amongst each other, then it's time for a reminder. Easy as that.
Fred.