This question about potential harm from an Ethernet port is understandably locked. However, even though it generated a couple of good answers, and I can see a potential link to home networking, I don't see it as on topic.
I attempted to flag it as such but only have the option to flag it for moderator attention.
Is the lack of an off-topic flag due to the lock, or something else?
Yes, the lock is preventing standard flags. From Meta Stack Exchange:
A question or answer which is locked can no longer accept:
- edits
- up-votes, down-votes
- comments, comment up-votes
- new answers (questions only)
- close votes, reopen votes (questions only)
- new bounties (questions only)
- delete votes, undelete votes.
In an ideal world, there would be a comment lock for situations like this that would only block new comments, but alas, locks currently prevent almost all operations on the post.
If there's something that needs doing to a locked post, moderators will have to do it. Therefore, you can cast a custom flag if you believe action needs to be taken there. Alternatively, you can wait until the question gets unlocked (presumably once the attention dies down) and then cast a recommend-closure flag. Personally, I would be inclined to leave the question open, since it's about hardware used in home setups, but others may disagree.
I'm the mod who locked it. There was a few key points I considered.
The quality of the answers was decent, but it was attracting an inordinate amount of snarky comments. I didn't particularly want to penalise the people doing the right thing - just send a message about the tone of commentary
In theory SU's kind of meant for folks of a broad range of skills, and this felt like something someone without a solid grounding in networking might wonder about.
Now if folks had voted to close rather than post comments that were snarky, or commenting on the snarkiness it might be closed rather than locked.
I also totally agree with what Ben said and
Personally, I would be inclined to leave the question open, since it's about hardware used in home setups, but others may disagree.
