Apart from finding cuntish infamy on Wiki sm?
Well I suppose that the 1000 post limit does much the same thing because rarely does a contentious thread carry on past it 
BTW JJ, we know that you are not Jj. Or Jajas 
I used the lock when things were getting out of control. Temporarily usually, until people had calmed down and the cold light of day had done its work. It was easier than having to warn / ban multiple decent posters or delete the entire thread if I was the only mod around.
In fact, it was encouraged that a lock in doubt would be preferable to binning one because it was a VERY SERIOUS matter to do that and would usually involve a very long conversation in the hidden forums as to whether it was necessary.
There was also a thread-separate / merge facility. So with controversial issues, for example, Jj's posts on her MC thread could be transferred to a new one on a different board and subsequent questioning ones picked off and moved to say, this one. So that everything was on-topic and in place.
Yes it was run mainly by men and no I don't post or moderate any more. Not sure if it could work here just offering ideas.