Firstly, can you show me some closed threads that you feel shouldn't have been closed in your mind?

Currently, the gaming and movie/music subforums are in a very good place activity wise - yet they are subject to OT rules and then some. While I agree with you on these points:

• the goal of moderation is to provide the most enjoyable experience for the maximum number of users
• off topic is currently a very inactive board (comparatively)
• the reason for a pay-wall into wibbles (TP) is opaque to most people including myself

I'm not sure if I agree with the 'tone back moderation' idea - the way I'm looking at it is that the only active threads in that situation would be posting game threads (like the acronyms thread) - this is not discussion and not the objective of off topic at all.

So rather than a changing of OT rules, some other action would be healthier imo - either free up the wibbles-style board for regular users or maybe even create a 'posting games' subforum.