Sometimes we lock discussions, because a decision has been reached within the team on how to proceed (how to implement a feature). To avoid noise via the infamous '+1' comments.

However, locking an issue prevents our community members to give a thumbs-up to the feature request. So in our attempt to create less noise we block any interaction and stop getting information that would be helpful for us.

Proposal

• When clicking 'lock conversation', ask the user if they want to 'still allow reactions?'. I suppose this can be done in a modal, with a checkbox 'Don't ask again'.
• Allow to change this setting later, through a 'Allow reactions' / 'Disable reactions' link in the right column, between 'Unlock conversation' and 'Pin issue'
• In the repository settings, add a setting that determines the default for issues within the repo.