It was supposed to work--yeah, right

I have just spent another long day tinkering with, experimenting with, and cussing out the Edit This Forum at my Web site. It took me a while (like months) to realize that no one could reply to them and that something was amiss. I love my computer but I sure don't understand Web sites, particularly my own. So, I contact my computer guru. I get instructions, which are simple. However, they make no sense because I have to change a yes to a no to get the desired results. And since I don't trust technology, I only opened four of the forums to replies to test what happens. And what do I discover? Why that three of those four forums now have both a padlock and a people icon on them. The fourth has only the people icon. What does that mean? I have no clue. ARGH!!!!