Well, i'd hate to tell the mods how to do their jobs, but you do have "lock" and "merge thread" options, right?
Sure, I do but it turns out this ended up being a pretty good thread. It also doesn't always teach someone new that they need to check for existing threads by searching or reading.
The poor guy was made to feel terrible and PM'ed me apologizing that he had really screwed up. I told him no problem, chalk it up to a lesson well learned.
What's the ultimate big deal really?