I also don't think Surri is the greatest mod ever, Battlecow, but I happen to agree with Surri's decision. And I see why the Backroom isn't public now.
Darth finds out about something as little as the Backroom briefly mentioning the issue of dark colors on Kongo, and he makes a thread in response to that. THAT ONE LITTLE ISSUE. Imagine if all the issues being discussed in the Backroom was open to the public? If Darth wanted to discuss the dark color issue badly enough to make a thread, how commonly would topics be made for much larger issues? Then, the point of the Backroom being admission-only becomes obsolete, since everybody else will be discussing the issues in the main forum.
Basically, it comes down to this:
-Darth made a thread in response to JUST ONE TINY ISSUE, because he really wanted to get his opinion out. This shows that the public WOULD make threads in response to the Backroom.
-You guys complain about Darth's thread being closed, even though it was in response to something that was in the Backroom. This implies that you guys would rather have a public Backroom than a private Backroom, even though you guys would render a public Backroom obsolete by making threads in response.
-This would be fine to me if you guys were against a Backroom. However, you guys WANTED a Backroom. So first you want a Backroom, then you want it to be public, and THEN you want to be able to discuss it in the main forum, which defeats the purpose of the Backroom in the first place. DO YOU GUYS WANT A BACKROOM OR NOT?
I'm actually kind of glad Darth found out about that little bit of information. I was split on the issue, but I'm adamant now. (No Backroom>) Public Backroom > Private backroom.
EDIT: Just remembered Battlecow was against the Backroom, so him being against Darth's thread being closed is fine with me now, I guess. For anyone else reading this who was both FOR a Backroom, and AGAINST Darth's thread being closed, you are a hypocrite.
...Man, I am just really not happy today.