No, open discussion is not against the rules unless it is to do with child pornography, revealing a vendor's packaging / stealth techniques or revealing personal information of any kind about any member. Locking threads has no real place in a community where freedom of speech is central to the ideals on which Silk Road is based; its only place is in keeping outdated or irrelevant information from clouding current and relevant information. This is a free and open community (though it is a privately owned forum), and the member has been advised that the item he/she wishes to sell cannot be sold here as its purpose is to defraud others. That is why I stepped in - to ensure that the Silk Road forums are not being used to defraud anyone. The person has the card, and will likely find some way to use it. We cannot stop people from PMing them, nor would we want to. We are not here to control speech, nor censor people. The moderators jobs are to ensure that the policies set out by DPR set out are abided by; that includes what I've mentioned above, but also includes the protection of freedom of speech. scout and samesamebutdifferent may have locked threads in the past, as did I on a very small number of occasions for reasons that I outlined in them; I arrived here with libertarian views and those are what influence my decisions. Forum moderators have different views on how best to approach certain issues on the forums, and it is not my place to question how they see fit to moderate. It is not my place to ask them - rather as the question is coming from you, it is your place to ask them. However, regardless of all that, DPR has given recent instruction that threads not be locked for reasons other than those that I have outlined above. Libertas