This question was recently migrated to MSE from MO. Within about an hour it had been unilaterally closed by a moderator, who thereby made it impossible either to leave comments or to vote to reopen the question.

It is not a contest question, spam, or patently offensive, or even a little disturbing like the cutter picture a while back, so there is no obvious reason to rush to supersede the normal course of events.

As a general principle I think it a bad idea for a moderator to preempt what are fundamentally community decisions, and a number of moderators have made similar comments during my time here. When the issue is as contentious as this one has been, it seems to me not just a bad idea, but an outright abuse of power.

Question: Irrespective of your opinion of the proper eventual fate of the question that prompted mine here, is it acceptable for a moderator unilaterally to make such a decision?

Added: The lock appears to have been peculiar to the circumstances surrounding this particular question, so the general picture isn’t quite so bad as I described in the first paragraph above; see the comments below. However, the fundamental problem of one person preempting the community remains; another instance may be seen here.

This question was recently migrated to MSE from MO. Within about an hour it had been unilaterally closed by a moderator, who thereby made it impossible either to leave comments or to vote to reopen the question.

It is not a contest question, spam, or patently offensive, or even a little disturbing like the cutter picture a while back, so there is no obvious reason to rush to supersede the normal course of events.

As a general principle I think it a bad idea for a moderator to preempt what are fundamentally community decisions, and a number of moderators have made similar comments during my time here. When the issue is as contentious as this one has been, it seems to me not just a bad idea, but an outright abuse of power.

Question: Irrespective of your opinion of the proper eventual fate of the question that prompted mine here, is it acceptable for a moderator unilaterally to make such a decision?

Added: The lock appears to have been peculiar to the circumstances surrounding this particular question, so the general picture isn’t quite so bad as I described in the first paragraph above; see the comments below. However, the fundamental problem of one person preempting the community remains; another instance may be seen here.

This question was recently migrated to MSE from MO. Within about an hour it had been unilaterally closed by a moderator, who thereby made it impossible either to leave comments or to vote to reopen the question.

It is not a contest question, spam, or patently offensive, or even a little disturbing like the cutter picture a while back, so there is no obvious reason to rush to supersede the normal course of events.

As a general principle I think it a bad idea for a moderator to preempt what are fundamentally community decisions, and a number of moderators have made similar comments during my time here. When the issue is as contentious as this one has been, it seems to me not just a bad idea, but an outright abuse of power.

Question: Irrespective of your opinion of the proper eventual fate of the question that prompted mine here, is it acceptable for a moderator unilaterally to make such a decision?

This question was recently migrated to MSE from MO. Within about an hour it had been unilaterally closed by a moderator, who thereby made it impossible either to leave comments or to vote to reopen the question.

It is not a contest question, spam, or patently offensive, or even a little disturbing like the cutter picture a while back, so there is no obvious reason to rush to supersede the normal course of events.

As a general principle I think it a bad idea for a moderator to preempt what are fundamentally community decisions, and a number of moderators have made similar comments during my time here. When the issue is as contentious as this one has been, it seems to me not just a bad idea, but an outright abuse of power.

Question: Irrespective of your opinion of the proper eventual fate of the question that prompted mine here, is it acceptable for a moderator unilaterally to make such a decision?

Added: The lock appears to have been peculiar to the circumstances surrounding this particular question, so the general picture isn’t quite so bad as I described in the first paragraph above; see the comments below. However, the fundamental problem of one person preempting the community remains; another instance may be seen here.