The Swear Filter - Language Warning

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Famine

Famine

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*Language Warning (sorry)


Now, I'm all for the swear filter. But.

The filter is interfering with everyday language. Words which can only be used as offensive terms should be covered. Obviously. But a few examples have come to mind recently.

There's b**** - a female dog. C*** - a male chicken, That certain mis-spelling of "come" - which crops up in Latin and in English (meaning "becoming"), in several placenames - which is only used by 10 year olds in the offensive context.

There's a section in the AUP/ToS stating that no members should use profanities, and another saying that personal attacks won't be tolerated. Isn't it enough that these clauses exist, and offending members can be reported and dealt with by the moderators, without impinging on normal communcations?
 
Life is funny. We can't assume that everyone will abide by these rules. We can only plan for that contingent.

You know as well as I do, that if the swear filter wasn't there we'd be over run with inappropriate language. How often do you see posts written with slang terms? They apparently didn't read that section of the AUP. If they can't read that, what makes you think they'll read the portion about language?

As much of a hindrance, it's more of a benefit.

AO
 
It's Copernicus...

Der Alta - I agree entirely. It's not about removing the swear filter, but about fine-tuning it. Those three words are examples of everyday words which are taken out by the filter. If we're going to blank out any everyday word which can be twisted into an insult, why not take out "gay", "balls" and "prick"? "Dick" isn't removed either - despite the fact it has only one use within a sentence (but can be used, as a proper noun, as someone's name. And means "fat" in German), yet it has exactly the same meaning as the "male chicken" which is removed.

If I want to talk about my female pet dog, I'd say she was a b****. If I want to talk about an illegitimate child, I'd be referring to a bastard. Why remove one, but not the other?


The swear filter must be kept for words which have only one use - to be offensive. But not for common language which can be perverted. We don't ban eggs because someone can throw them at our deputy Prime Minister...
 
I know what you mean Famine. I think the words you mention that are everyday words but also insulting words are used too often as swear words or insults, the words have been taken to mean something else as time has gone on and I dont think they can be left in. People might want to use them for their uninsulting meaning but there would be far too many people who would do the opposite.

Times change - because of the change in society, society itself now has to moderate the words it uses and what they mean, because someone might take offence or take something to mean something that it was never intended to mean.

I had a prime example of this the other day, a friends grandmother used the phrase "Ive been working like a black". Now she saw absolutley nothing wrong in that whatsoever, but it may be that even here, some members take offence ( no harm meant ).

Its just the way it is and I dont think it will ever change back.
 
Famine

There's b**** - a female dog. C*** - a male chicken, That certain mis-spelling of "come" - which crops up in Latin and in English (meaning "becoming"), in several placenames - which is only used by 10 year olds in the offensive context.
Click to expand...


And in the last year how many time were these words used in this meaning??
 
TriplePlay
You're stretching a bit there. BTW, what is that thing in your avatar? A gorilla? Bear? Doctor?
Click to expand...

You obviously did not pay attention in Back to the Future II & III.
 
Famine
We don't ban eggs because someone can throw them at our deputy Prime Minister...
Click to expand...

Genius...

On a similar note... C U Next Tuesday... was used by shakespeare and at that time was the common name for a ladies privates... now it is the "worst" swear word that you can use and is completely banned from appearing in films!

C.
 
Yes, technically, many of the words in the filter can have alternate uses. However, they are more often used for the wrong reasons, which is enough reason for me to keep them filtered. It's not like the only way to refer to your female dog, male chicken, or whatever, is with the words in question. If you can't come up with another way of saying it then you probably shouldn't be saying it at all.

Besides, the moderators have enough work to do here. Cleaning up posts to remove 2 or 3 "bad" words, and contacting the offenders is not something they need to be bothered with.
 
Indeed - but, for instance, there is no way to replace, err, that three letter mis-spelling of "come" if you're quoting Latin text (happens a lot more often than you may think) and in certain British place names. In fact there's more ways to use a different phrase to swear than there are ways to use a different phrase to say what you mean cleanly.

Moving on the logic that certain words are more commonly used for the wrong reasons, I rarely see "bastard" used in the right context and I've almost never seen "prick" used to refer to anything other than genitalia. And I'm not just talking about this site either. Then again, what about words which have only one meaning and aren't screened? Like "crap", "piss" and "bollocks" (the latter actually being one of the site's more senior member's username)?


As I said, don't get me wrong. There's every need for the swear filter, given some of the geniuses (genii? Whatever) the site attracts. But its stopping everyone from using the full breadth of our (clean) language because of a few fools - and with no consistency. That's like banning a few types of fork because some kid held up a post office with one...


Edit: I should add that, while I obviously don't agree with you, I respect your decision.
 
Famine
It's Copernicus...

Der Alta - I agree entirely. It's not about removing the swear filter, but about fine-tuning it. Those three words are examples of everyday words which are taken out by the filter. If we're going to blank out any everyday word which can be twisted into an insult, why not take out "gay", "balls" and "prick"? "Dick" isn't removed either - despite the fact it has only one use within a sentence (but can be used, as a proper noun, as someone's name. And means "fat" in German), yet it has exactly the same meaning as the "male chicken" which is removed.

If I want to talk about my female pet dog, I'd say she was a b****. If I want to talk about an illegitimate child, I'd be referring to a bastard. Why remove one, but not the other?


The swear filter must be kept for words which have only one use - to be offensive. But not for common language which can be perverted. We don't ban eggs because someone can throw them at our deputy Prime Minister...
Click to expand...
I didn't know that an illegitimate child was reffered to as a bastard...
 
A bastard child is one born out of wedlock.

Interesting side note. Birds have, along the leading edge of their wings, about halfway down, a small digit analagous to our thumbs. These are called "bastard wings". I'm not making this up.
 
Famine
A bastard child is one born out of wedlock.

Interesting side note. Birds have, along the leading edge of their wings, about halfway down, a small digit analagous to our thumbs. These are called "bastard wings". I'm not making this up.
Click to expand...
He is - Don't trust him !...
 
how about ****ake mushrooms? or when people converse about school using latin terms as famine suggested, magna *** laude?
 
Can't you just step around the swear filter if you aren't using the word in an offensive manner? I don't think it's much of a problem if you aren't being offensive, is it?

Magna Cum Laude.
Speckles, my Shih Tzu is a bitch.
Shitake mushrooms.
Have you been to a Mexican cockfight?

There. Done.

Wasn't vagina censored before?
 
Absolutely not. What word would you use in place of slut? Person who has intercourse with dozens of people? But if it were up to me, there wouldn't be a swear filter, and this place wouldn't be PG-13! Swearing and name-calling is great. Especially when two morons fight with each other.

"hey, **** you man! xbox is better than ps2"
"bill gates is a ****, you *****!"
"lol, what the ****???????? hes ritch and hes better than sony you ****"

America should take a page from Australia's and England's book when it comes to swears. Bloody, bugger off, bollocks, wanker, they're all genius swears.

When I see conversations like that, I just laugh. It's hysterical. Well, until it gets out of hand.
 
I can't stand hearing Australian swear words, it's like we're still 200 years behind the world still (I know we are but I don't like being reminded of it).

I was recently accosted by a British band on my forums, who called me an 'arse' and a 'gob****e'. I thought those were pretty damn funny, but they certainly weren't insulting.

I don't speak Latin.
I don't have illegitimate children (amazing how few people actually know that one...)
I don't own a dog.
I don't own a chicken.

Ergo, I'm never really affected by the swear filter. I think Klos' trick is a suitable one should you really need to use a word that trips the filter, and this stops most of the preteen AOL users of the world being able to swear more times at me in a single post than I do throughout an entire 3 hour Introduction to Java lesson. It's a pretty worthy trade off imo.
 
Gob****e? That might be the greatest swear ever. Yes, I'm positive it is. Can you add a filter so that all swears are filtered out as gob****e? That would be the ultimate in kickassery.

👍
 
Eagle
*snip*
I don't speak Latin.
*snip*
Ergo...
Click to expand...
Um, would you like to rephrase that? You obviously know enough Latin to use "***" in some way, shape, or form. I realize that's going to turn into asterisks, and I really don't care.
 
Slut aside, it's actually easier to just find a way around swears. Honestly:

"Shut the **** up you retarted ****ing newb dick ****er posting repeated **** threads in the wrong ****ing forum l337 haX0R RETARDICKED ****TARD!!!!!" :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

- OR -

"Are you aware you're posting in the wrong forum? There's an 'admin tools' at the bottom of the page and you can move the thread. Also, have you used the 'search' button? I believe there's already a thread on this. Oh, by the way, Welcome to GTPlanet :)"
 
Scheiße Dummkopf Hündin

See? No "*" of any kind, and it's swearing! I don't think Jordan can filter out swears from all languages, and I don't think many people will know they are being insulted.

Or we can just show some intelligence and use better, fancy words that will confuse the AOL preteen that has offended us.
 

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