Closing of Posts, question and suggestion (in General)

Generally I understand why posts are closed.

However, with the Arizona immigration post I am confused. There were no personal insults just a few jabs at both conservatives and libersls. I do not want to start a long thread about this but perhaps the following addition can be made:

Instead of at the end of a closed post it just states the post is closed perhaps it can state:

Post closed by XXXXX.

That way if there are questions as to why it was closed, like I currently have, a CM can be made instead of a forum post bound to get clouded by hysteria and ill feelings.

Also,

Would it be a good idea to have a marker, perhaps an * by the number of replies on the main forums page to see that a post has been locked by the admins/moderators?

Isn't the last person who posts always the one who closed a thread anyway?

No

unless that person is an admin, usually not. I don't know who closed this particular thread.

It was quite an old post it may have been automatic. It's just about 2 weeks old, and IIRC debate threads close faster than normal.

Especially since no admins posted in it. I doubt anyone closed it down. Open a continuation?

If people keep on replying, it won't auto close so fast. Also 2 weeks isn't a usual timing afaik. But I won't say it's impossible.

Oh, I didn't see the admin post it wasn't there before when I last looked.

Agreed.
Threads should at the very least be marked with a "closed" comment in order to identify to users that the thread has been closed by an admin.

Unless I've missed an obvious reason why we shouldn't do this then it will be standard going forward.

Yes, good policy.

The asterisk thing I don't think will be necessary if moderators document their work.