Opinion of the Oxford Comma

[Del Tachi]

I approve! It's useful, makes sense, and I use it often.

That's not an Oxford comma.  ", and" is a coordinating conjunction in this example.


Personally, I believe that the serial comma should only be used in cases where it reduces ambiguity.  There's absolutely no reason to use it in the following sentence, for example:

"The colors of the flag are red, white and blue."

However, as you can see here, sometimes its lack of use does create ambiguity:

"Lydia edits the social, garden and home and cooking sections."

Obviously the above construction is terrible, and an serial comma should be used.  However, the sentence could easily be rearranged to make use of the serial comma unnecessary:

"Lydia edits the home and cooking, social and garden sections."
 
So voted HP.

[Del Tachi]

So, the positives of using it are reducing possible confusion and ambiguity, while the negatives are...

It's extraneous.  In situations where it matters (like on old school typewriters or Twitter), it counts as a character space. 

Also, can you provide an example where the lack of a serial comma introduces ambiguity that cannot be resolved by simply re-ordering the named items in the series?

[Del Tachi]

How about using it only when doing so results in the minimal ambiguity? No need to use it or reject it all the time.

This is obviously the best answer, but the point of grammar is to create a standardized set of rules that are universally applicable and understood.  Having a "sometimes do, sometimes don't" type philosophy runs counter to that.