Hmm, i think it came with 1.1.6 you might have overlooked it maybe, but it's rather an old setting...
as you can see in a standart 2.0.0 newreply.php:
PHP Code:
if (!$threadinfo[open]) {
if (!ismoderator($threadinfo[forumid],"canopenclose")) {
eval("standardredirect(\"".gettemplate("redirect_threadclosed")."\",\"showthread.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&threadid=$threadid\");");
exit;
}
}
every vb2 has that feature