Systems such as RCS traditionally notify the old lock holder whenever a lock is broken by a new user. I think it would be useful if TWiki did the same. If nothing else it would alert the old lock holder that they should either:

1. Be more careful about releasing the lock, or:
2. Save their content elsewhere.

A more advanced process could use InstantMessenger to request that the old lock holder relinquish the lock and merge edits at the end of the process.

-- MartinCleaver - 24 Jul 2003