I don't really see the problem as long as people aren't posting things against the terms of use on the site. Obviously those things should be cracked down on, but the popularity of this thread suggests to me people like the idea of it as a thread about everything. People talking about sports shouldn't be grounds for closing it. How do you define nothing?
I define it the way the original poster defined it: random rants that have no "home" elsewhere on the site.
Every topic on NikeTalk has a purpose and every section has a purpose. We don't need ten different topics about the same basketball game, and we also don't need people talking about it in five different forums at once. We have one thread for that game in the Sports & Training forum. That's just efficient.
What isn't efficient is trying to run an organized website for 50,000 registered contributors and then a disorganized "mini-site" for 50 regular contributors.
When someone starts an inappropriate topic in one of our forums, it's pretty easy to catch. (e.g. pornographic webcams.) When someone tries to start a "mini-tangent" in this thread about the same inappropriate topic, it's a real pain to identify it. We can't be in here constantly without neglecting the rest of the site (which serves a much, MUCH broader audience), and if this thread is completely redundant than why should I ask our staff to even try and babysit it in the first place?
So, from a pragmatic standpoint, either this thread has a unique purpose and isn't a burden to maintain or it's counterproductive and needs to be locked. I've given you guys every opportunity to make it work, but we've gotta cut our losses at some point if it becomes clear that the regulars aren't willing or able to comply with our rules.