I'm the one who posted the message you referenced about doing AFK arenas (not "beyond-tec", as incorrectly attributed to him earlier in this thread). Here is my full post again...

2-38?!!?

OMG, that's a lot better than my 0-120 over the last 6 weeks!

(As I'm typing this I'm in my 14th AFK game in a row - so many 70s I need 2 5v5 teams now)

In less than an hour of web surfing I'll have gained 4043 arena points, as I do every week.

Welfare? Absolutely

Do it? I'd be an idiot not to. Plus all the goodwill of giving away approx 300 points in arena rating to teams that actually prepared, have 5 players, and give a crap.

I always picture the other team on teamspeak, "Dude, queue us up again - FAST! Maybe we'll get that group again! Hurry!" Does my heart good to be nice to folks.

Sure, I'll try when my shammies get some decent gear, but with 40 resiliance and 600 spell damage it would be rather silly at this point.

As to the original question - is it allowed? Fortunately, you are allowed to suck at arena and keep playing. My personal experience is that I've been doing it on a couple of teams for over 6 months and have never had anyone (player or GM) say anything that would make me think it was not.

In response to some of the replies from the community -

"How could you live with yourself" (how can I live with myself trying and going 0-10 every week?)

"not in the spirit of competition" (OK, think of it as trying, just not very hard, and when my wife has walked into the room talking to me and I'm distracted)

"You should at least ride into the middle in a pack to lose faster" (I actually do this about half the time, so I guess I'm not truly AFK)

"You get hardly any points by doing this" (See below)

People just don't seem to understand that even when I've tried (once in a blue moon), with my crap gear I get owned anyway. Fast. I have no outside healer and no one on these forums has done any good at all truly 5-boxing. I'm trying to get points on 13 level 70s with a wide variety of classes that don't mix very well (most in cloth). It is by far the most efficient use of my time to lose 10 games on two teams as fast as possible.

I buy a new 5v5 team every week for 200g so I can get about 320 points on each toon per week. Please understand, arena rating is basically meaningless unless you get above 1500. Under 1500, Blizzard is giving you points for entering the arena, not for skill or rating. They communicate this to the playerbase by how we are rewarded:

5v5 rating Arena Points Notes (My formatting of this table has failed a number of times, so I'm just color-coding the columns - really, it looks better as a table )

1500 344 The points you'd get if you form a decent team, spend some time gearing up, and beat half the teams you face

1375 317 This is my typical rating after losing 10 games (a whopping 27 less points than the average team)

1280 298 This is my typical rating after losing 20 games, and when I usually buy a new team to start at 1500 again

1121 256 Even if you lose all your games for 4 weeks in a row you are still getting decent points - equal to a 1500 rated 2v2

1625 499 Ah, here is where it gets interesting. Note that when 125 below 1500 I get 27 less points, but when 125 above 1500 I get 155 points more.

As you can see, I've done some thinking about this and not trying very hard in arena is the result of my "logical reasoning" on the subject. Blizzard compels us to participate in arena based on the rewards. I do so in as efficient a manner as possible and one that actually rewards people who are trying and lose more than they win. I honestly don't see any downside.

Edit: BTW, thought I'd add... all this becomes moot for me in a few days. After S4 starts I'm going to blow all my honor and arena points on gear, have a shot at actually winning, and do my best.