US5: As a thread owner, I want to be able to lock the thread to reduce cognitive load on students when a thread is getting too big or has already been solved.

[Xeno852]

Feature: Topic Locking Functionality

Impact: Medium

• Instructors can lock discussions to prevent further replies once a question has been sufficiently answered or is no longer relevant.
• Students can see which topics have been locked, indicating that no further discussion is needed or allowed.

Effort: Medium

• Requires an additional field in the Topic object for tracking lock status.
• Implementation of new API endpoints for managing topic lock status.
• Front-end modifications to display a lock button and indicate lock status on each topic's page.
• Event handling for lock button clicks.

Estimated Effort: Medium
Dependencies: None
Initial Assignments: @Xeno852 Milestones: P2C

Acceptance Criteria:

1. A "Lock" button is present on each topic's frontend page, allowing users with appropriate permissions to lock the topic.
2. The lock status of each topic is visibly indicated on the frontend page.
3. The lock functionality is exclusively available to the topic owner, administrators, and moderators.
4. Topics default to an "Unlocked" status upon creation.
5. Clicking the lock button changes a topic's status to "Locked" and updates the frontend display to reflect this new status.
6. Priority: 4th. This feature aims to help moderators and instructors manage discussions more effectively, ensuring that conversations remain focused and relevant, and preventing unnecessary or redundant replies.