Yes, that is correct. It’s even stated in the rule that was quoted in the OP:
[QUOTE=The GQ Rules]
We tolerate some joking
[/QUOTE]
The Straight Dope is both an information column, and a humor column. Cecil often includes jokes in his responses. This site wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t permit some joking. We have a small restriction in GQ in order to facilitate getting factual answers; we don’t want threads to be hijacked by jokes before there is an opportunity for it to be answered straight up. After that jokes are OK - I do it myself. (However, if a GQ thread ends up being mostly jokes it may be moved to IMHO or MPSIMS.) I may not moderate even an initial joke unless it is particularly stupid or obnoxious or derails the thread.
We don’t usually discuss thread reports publicly, but since DrDeth has chosen to make this an issue, and his thread reports are relevant to both his complaint and my moderation of that thread, I’m going to make an exception in this case.
First I would like to say that my comments are not intended to discourage anyone from reporting posts. When in doubt, please report. We would rather receive reports that end up requiring no action, than having some situation get out of hand because nobody reported it. This said, if you frequently make thread reports of a particular behavior, and the mods rarely or never act on them, you might consider whether perhaps the mods don’t regard that as a rules violation or something else that requires action. If you want to know why the mods haven’t taken action on your thread report, you can always email or PM us to get clarification.
DrDeth frequently reports jokes in GQ, as well as a number of other offenses. Sometimes I have taken action on them if they are the first response to a thread, but often they come later and need no response. In the thread in question, DrDeth reported no fewer than three different posts (for being a jerk; deliberately false answers; and junior modding). I took action on the first response to the OP, which I interpreted as an attempt at a joke rather than being a jerk. In reference to the subsequent joke posts, by that time the thread had mostly settled down into factual answers so I didn’t feel the need to take further action.
Having reported the other posts, the appropriate thing for DrDeth to do would be to simply allow the mods to deal with them. If they weren’t, he could have contacted us to ask why we hadn’t. Instead, rather than reporting the post he commented on, he chose to take it upon himself to chastise the poster for what he thought was wrong behavior. Since he obviously knew that the proper thing to do was to report the post, and that junior modding was against the rules, I felt a note was in order when he junior modded another post rather than reporting it.
DrDeth, I would ask you to leave it to the mods to determine the appropriate level of joking in GQ. I request that you no longer report joke answers as rules violations in this forum, because you clearly have a different view on them than the GQ moderators. If there are actual violations, another poster probably will report them, so there is no need for you to do it.
PS. Thread title edited to clarify subject.