I completely agree with you and this is why I find Cerin's refusal to use the bikeracks quite baffling.
Really? Because it made perfect sense to me. I wasn't going to post anything here, but since this question is raised...
To start with, I've had disagreements with Cerin in the past and so I know when she disagrees she really disagrees.
But I have never been scared of her.
In this case I agree with her, not because I'm intimidated but because after dozens of pages of arguing, her original point seems only more proved by the arguments. If you want to have an area on the board set aside for serious disputes to be settled, all you have to do to have it is: have an area on the board set aside for serious disputes to be settled. It either is or it isn't. It's a place to blow off steam and play or the place to earnestly resolve conflict. The only thing keeping these boards what they are is people agreeing to post according to their definition. It's not that hard.
I certainly wouldn't consider myself to have "lost" anything if the BR disappeared. The result of people "winning" the right to have mock threads in them would simply be that the BR, as I originally understood them, would not exist for me on the board. Not in some dramatic way where I'm in mourning for my holy bike racks or felt I'd been personally insulted. It probably would not effect me personally one way or another,
but if I did get into a thing with someone and was requested to move it to the BR I would see it as a pointless annoyance where before I would accept it as a rule I followed to keep the board moving more smoothly.
Cerin's refusing to use the BR, to me, was the obvious result of the threads. The BR *were* the dispute, so there was no point in going to them to resolve it. The name "bike racks" I assume is supposed imply you are stepping outside to have something out in the fresh air. If the bike racks are inside, what's the point of going there? It's not neutral territory.
I understand that some people have no problem with defining the BR as a place to blow off steam at people and play, and then turning around and earnestly encouraging someone to use it as a conflict resolution space. But surely it's not so strange that other people do have a problem with it? The bike racks has always been metaphorical, obviously. The only reason it's the place for serious conflict resolution is because it's been designated that. If we don't use it for that, it stops being that. I would become more self-conscious about dragging myself over there to have my argument and, as was said above, my tone would probably start becoming more like the mock threads.
Some don't understand putting the effort into keeping the BR for serious disputes. To me that effort at least seems more logical that putting tons of effort into making it a space for personal disputes *and* mocking threads, since the original point of having the space for personal disputes seemed to be to make the board run more smoothly.
I'm not a big person for rules, but on mbs I just find it's less of a hassle all around to stick to the guidelines that are there to make things easier. I mod at another board, and maybe that's why the minute somebody starts trying to twist the ToS or redefine something and here's their long reason why, I just get impatient. My response to this is much like the response I had to the girl on the place that I mod who didn't want to follow the "you must use proper capitalization--that includes I" rule because she thought capitalizing "I" was putting herself on the same level as God. You can indulge your personal expression all you want and still follow the basic rules of the board, which you agreed to when you registered. As someone trying to keep the board going smoothly, you get the jokes that people are trying to make, and they just get old. If I were modding the bike racks the way I do my forums there? I'd simply have moved the thread to someplace else. No censorship, no deleting. Just being a traffic cop. Yes, the joke loses that surprise aspect because it's not in the BR anymore, but people can only be surprised once, yeah? They were surprised once, now it can move.
People have made fun of Christianity for hundreds of years. They've mocked it, they've messed around in churches and been quite mean about it, but I'm guessing (pardon for doing so Cerin) she is still able to go to church and not let that mocking mar her experience.
I'm pretty sure that if Cerin walked into church and the priest/minister gave a joke sermon, she'd walk out since, by definition, church is supposed to be the place it's not mocked. At the very least she's getting her time wasted. For most people, there's little point in going to church if God doesn't exist. Similarly, Cerin seems to have no problem whatsoever with mock threads elsewhere on the site. At least that's how I've understood her. I think you'd have to be an android not to mock stuff around here once in a while.
-m