Yes, only the admins can lock threads.
It's often hard to know when is the right moment to do so ...
e.g. things change and it can be useful to add to an old thread that the fix that works now is to do XYZ.
Off-topic is an issue.
We can (and do) move off-topic Posts to their own new threads.
[There is a cluster of Posts on V5 thread pending me doing exactly this right now - topic was NXI / thread was hijacked for I-series IIRC.]
Sticking to proven facts / quality Posts is an issue.
Typically, we let a lot of stuff slide, for the sake of not being over-zealous admins, and allowing people freedom to seek help / say what they see.
Obviously, for the newly added thread on V5.02 firmware we will be zealots
It needs to be a very high quality thread that gets a vital message to Hik Support.
Agreed on the 'Latest Firmware' problem.
We recognise the problem, but have not yet thought-through how to make it better.
This forum software probably has something, or something can be added.
I think that changes that Hikvision have recently made to where the firmware can be found have made this a more pressing issue.
As you know, links to the UK / EU portals used to suffice.
Then 'the latest' was being added at the product pages (an EU requirement, I believe).
Right now, it's all a bit confused.
Forum members are great at spotting new releases - we just need a better method of 'surfacing latest to the top' or whatever.
I've also toyed with the idea of providing more of an archive here, because we see messages along the lines of "can no longer find Version x.
We will ponder a little more ...
Thanks