Well, maybe, but if it's just a routine locking of inactive threads how are we to explain this?
Has the site been hacked by liberal extremists? Is Rebellion trying to distance itself from dissenting voices? Did Burt spill oil into Tharg's website-o-tron? Thrill-suckers? Gremlins? A random glitch?
I'm not saying there's any underhandedness going on here, because I don't know what's going on, but I am intrigued as to why this suddenly happened for no apparent reason.