Or are silly threads required to be started by silly aliases?
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When your "silly" thread is indistinguishable from straight-up flamebait, it's likely to get shut down quickly.
Silly threads tend to be tolerated as long as they're not cluttering up a forum that has a different purpose, aren't likely to turn mean-spirited and/or aren't making more work for the moderators.
I don't think this thread should have been locked quite so soon...
The post is blatantly sarcastic and is saying the opposite of what it purports to be arguing. I can't imagine anyone reading it carefully and thinking the writer seriously believes "It's time for a new edition of the Bestiary to clean up the bloat.... In the new edition, there should just be like three monsters total."
But people aren't careful readers and many probably mistook it for someone being genuinely angry at Paizo for producing so many bestiaries.
By locking the thread, we're left with the original controversial message, and no space for anyone to clarify that it was a joke.
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If you are going to make a silly thread that is not intended to be serious it is best to put it in the off-topic area. If you put it in the advice or rule area it will look like you are baiting people.
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*Looks at thread title*
S$!*, WE'VE BEEN MADE, PACK ONLY WHAT YOU NEED AND RUN LIKE HELL
*Reads thread*
Oh okay that's different.
A sarcastic thread is still hostile—against the side it's "parodying". Sarcasm and strawmanning of that nature is not conducive to any sort of healthy debate, much less when it's the entire thread.
Aw, yeah, scored a crit. And they said my buddy couldn't take on a T-rex.
I had a silly thread I started, in Advice I think, locked.
It was about assigning an alignment to pornography. I think the reason it got locked wasn't because of anything I posted, but the other posts got rather too uh, risque, for forums open to all ages.
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Silly/joking threads aren't something we're against or something not OK under our Community Guidelines. However, historically, we don't keep "parody threads" open (parody being a direct parallel of an existing contentious thread, riffing on an individual or group that within our community in a negative way, or similar). Why don't we keep them open? Because more often than not it isolates people, brings out the "mean" side of people, and ultimately doesn't serve to keep our forums a fun or friendly place. This would fall under the "baiting" portion of the Guidelines.
We do not explicitly spell out "don't do this" or "these threads aren't allowed" because, well, we're a site that caters to gamers. And, more often than not, explicit rules are just asking to be gamed or exploited.
As an aside, I will admit that I missed some key language in the post that indicated that it was a sarcastic, which is totally my bad (it has been a long and fatiguing week in the wake of PaizoCon, and that's not an excuse, but just trying to give context for my own flub), and have revised my post locking the thread.
I think what's being said is, if you're stirring up the pot, don't.
There are these ongoing arguments that keep coming up from time to time. Stuff like new editions and martial/caster disparity. It's bad enough the threads holding the arguments happen. We don't really need threads mocking them.
Let's rewind. We really don't need threads mocking anyone.
So. If a "silly" thread is something like "Abadar, Iomedae, and Asmodeus walk into a bar... what happens next?", then maybe it's okay, depending on where it's posted. But if it's parodying actual forum posters, topics, or threads, maybe we can all do without it.
To be fair, my read of the the thread didn't pick up sarcasm, because I have literally come across posts that were dead serious that used similar language.
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And a bit suspect I think.
