Threads are not just closed because there may be several clones of the same topic. There are many reasons to close or delete threads, even threads that people may see as clean or not damaging to anyone or anything.

There are posts many of you don't see because they get deleted or edited. If enough posts of this type become too plentiful in a thread then the thread needs to be closed or deleted to contain what is obviously a problem. Remember, you don't know how many infractions or what types of infractions may have been handed out in a closed or deleted thread that could have prompted the closing or deletion of a thread.

All Mods do their best to keep the forum up to the standard we are charged with keeping and we do our best to keep things running smoothly without much grief to the majority of the users. The Reps oversee the Mods and the Reps also have the task of ensuring things on the forum do not disrupt business and the flow of business.

So, if you start a thread of something like cat pictures and the thread gets closed, there may be several reasons you are not aware of. It could very well be several people started posting inappropriate pictures in the thread, or people started flaming each other, or some pics were used to insult other users. Or it could just be that the thread was pure spam. If you have a thread deleted you can always PM the mod or mods assigned to the section it was in to find out why. Threads that are closed 99.9% of the time will have the reason why as the very last post in the thread.