I felt like I'd respond in an attempt to clear some things up.
I'm curious how levels 81-84 ruin the bracket when a twinked 80 is the same thing (in my opinion). I'd like to hear your feedback on this if you'd take the time (and anybody else for that matter).
Because 81-84s often have an unfair advantage over 80s. 81 warriors for example have a very large damage buff in colossus smash over 80 equivalents.
I also find it funny nobody gets equally upset when it is done in PVE. An 80 solos a whole instance by themselves and they get cheers. You solo a whole battleground, and you're public enemy number one.
Soloing at 80 is about the challenge. Given that you can stomp a bg at 80, giving yourself more of an advantage at 84 is frowned upon because it decreases the skillcap and challenge of fighting other players.
Remember: Blizzard set the brackets, released the gear, gave us the options. When don't people try to maximize their characters potential? This is why blizzard puts caps on valor and conquest points because if they didn't, there are people who would never stop.
They'd never admit it, but I highly doubt they ever intended the MoP-ilevel gear to get below level 85 requirements. GC even admitted it when the paladin bug was floating around. That said, they'd get more QQ than they do now if they changed the requirements on everything.
For example, I think it is bullsh*t that a level 80 paladin solo'd Elegon (although impressive) because there were level 90s guild that still weren't able to do it and a paladin did by taking advantage of mechanics that Blizzard put in place. I would say that Blizzard did not intend for players at that level to solo current content but it happened. However, on TwinkInfo in the 80-89 bracket, we have a sticked forum for people to show off that they have solo'd certain content and other players have followed and tried (and succeeded) as well.
Bad example. The elegon solo (and a lot of my early MoP paladin solos) were exploiting arguably the biggest bug in WoW's history, because players were never meant to have 100 million attack power. Soloing at 80 can be far more of a challenge than at 90, just because of the health and dps difference.
Being a twink regardless of level, in pvp and pve is bullsh*t. Trying to put anybody down about it, for any reason, is also bullsh*t. If you want to blame someone, talk to Blizzard. They have been taking the steps to correct some of these problems (like the upcoming enchant scaling). Maybe they will do something about the weapons/armor too.
Not true. The fault in this (and to some extent 85s) bracket(s) is the addition of the MoP-ilevel gear. Back in cataclysm the 80s bracket was relatively balanced, with only a couple classes standing high above the rest (and one could be countered reasonably easily in PvP). Twinking has always been about getting the max out of any level. Technically, the players who raid in the top ~100 guilds are doing the same as us, since they're aiming for the best gear available to them.
Regarding soloing in general, it's been around for a _very_ long time. The earliest solos I remember are from back in tbc, where block capped warriors and paladins could take down a couple ZG and MC bosses solo, without the massive power creep that we can see now (MC and ZG still really required a large group of people to clear, almost as far as early wotlk).
So please, do us a favour and don't twink 81-84 or 86-89, you won't be seen as a skilled player, it's more likely to get you disliked (as seen here). It'd mostly be coming from the purist twinks anyway.
Is this really necessary?
