Closing Threads

The thread entitled "Can I have the bill please?" was running for five years and had many thousands of contributions. The represents countless hours of conversation between members of this community.
It was closed recently because a small minority of contributors could not behave decently to each other.
What sort of policy is this Internations? How is it any sort of solution to the problem?
If certain members behave badly, how is that resolved by closing individual threads? That person can simply take their misconduct to another topic.
Why would anyone spend so much time contributing to a topic if they know and any time it could be closed?
Isn't this some sort of unjust collective punishment? Why should we all suffer for the actions of a few?
If people can't behave decently to other members then they should be punished individually.
I would like to see those who caused the trouble removed from the site and the thread re-opened. I suspect that QA won't like this solution because removing individuals is contradictory to their business model but that is short-sighted. If the community is allowed to be poisoned by a few bad eggs people will go elsewhere.

Rant over.