[profanity] why starring out the whole word is a bad policy

have you ever seen the louis ck (at least i think it was louis ck) bit about the "n-word" and how whenever someone uses the term "n-word" you're making the other person say the actual n-word in their head? well starring out the whole word is like that. any time someone posts "****" i say the f-word in my head (not the term "f-word", the actual f-word). i'm sure i'm not alone in this. and anyone who has ever seen 'a christmas story' knows, the f-word is the big one, "the queen-mother of all swear words". but sometimes a more innocuous swear word is intended, only we often don't realize it until we reach the end of the sentence. at that point we've already said the f-word in our heads and now we have to go back and mentally replace the "****" with the appropriate, less offensive swear. in some cases maybe it's not completely obvious and you have to go through the whole mental catalog of swears that you know until you find the one that fits. this amount of cerebral cursing seems excessive and more than anyone should be comfortable with.

so i propose that when someone feels they need to say the f-word they should still have to star out the whole word, but when someone means to say a less offensive word, something that could be found in harry potter or mad men, they should be able to indicate that they are doing so. maybe just by typing the first letter of the intended word followed by stars (or asterisks, whatever). that way people can stop dropping unintended f-bombs on our brains. what say you esteemed administrators and fellow jedi council posters?

 

Man, **** this ****.

Seriously though, I've been thinking for a while now that we should kind of ease up on the swearing rules....as in not having to star them out at all. Of course insults and any swear word that is derogatory towards specific groups of people, like the n-word, should not be allowed at all. But something like what I said above is generally harmless especially since I'm obviously being sarcastic (btw f-word and s-word in that order ). Do I really need to partially star out the word when I say something like, "That movie ****ing sucked"? Yes, it's a swear word but like I said I'm not being insulting or flaming anyone here. Are we still operating this place as a family friendly forum even though the majority of us are bitter oldbies now?

Perhaps that's a separate discussion but going back to the original topic, I agree with tom on this issue.

 

Can we at least get rid of starring out swear words in the JCC? The JCC is many wonderful things, but referring to the JCC as "family friendly" is

 

i wasn't suggesting uncensored profanity, just a very slight relaxation of the current policy that could help streamline and clarify communication.

 

I seem to recall this being something of an old vulgarity complaint and, honestly, I believe it's making increasingly less sense for us to keep the old policy in light of more recent changes. Ergo, I think it would be reasonable for us to slacken the guidelines (Not much of a slackening, even, IMO) to allow, say, "****," considering:

1. FFS, for example, is okay but somehow "For ****'s sake" - which ironically looks less offensive - makes it bad.
2. Autofiltering to, say, "****" "****ing" "****ed" - or even "****" "*******" "*******" - would make the prohibited words list readable again. Right now I'm advised to direct users to a list that says they cannot use the words "****" "*******" or "******."
3. I think most people who have not yet grown accustomed to our own policies naturally tend to use "****" and the like, and frankly speaking as a moderator there's nothing that feels quite as silly as "You have to star out the whole word" edits.
4. My understanding is that this is the manner in which our sister site Rebelscum handles the issue

 

Couldn't have said it better. I agree, both from a mod and a user's point of views, that the starring-out rules should adopt the Rebelscum standard.

 

This is why the "**** Your Kids Say" thread always weirds me out and confuses me for a second.

But, yeah, I'm basically okay with allowing the first letter. My only concern is that the pain-in-the-ass/incomprehensibility factor of having to star out everything does discourage people from just putting "****" everywhere, and if we ease it up to let people get their meanings across more easily, it's possible that it could get overused, and we'd see a lot more "****" and "b****" and "****ing ****" around. Which has the disadvantage of being both vulgar and stupid-looking. I wouldn't want PT posters to start a rash of posting about how AOTC is a ****-****ing pile of ****ing **** now that saying so wouldn't just be a meaningless pile of asterisks, or for Lit posters to start harping on how Admiral Daala is being such a ****ing b****. That sort of impact on the level of discourse outside the JCC would be the biggest concern, I think.

 

Or certain filtering/censoring guidelines for certain forums. Full asterisks in main series forums, such as EpVII or Lit, given the newcomers and yutes incoming, less restrictive in JCC, Senate, etc. PG vs PG-13.

Or...accept that, with the full asterisk, you are reading profanity in general and the degree is unimportant. Don't give the word power!!

 

You're all a pack of *****.

 

Gum only has three letters, jp.

 

I proposed what tom was saying years ago. And I'm a big fan of toms, not just his posts but his films (High Road To China) and his shows (the one with him and JoinTheHiggins in Hawaii is awesome) so yes. I support this post and ending racism.

 

I support Ender_Sai's post... as well as the posts of JonTheShorts, Ramza, and of course, Tom. I agree that starring out the whole word is a silly policy. I don;t think anybody is asking for permission to go on swear word sprees, or whatever. I guess I'm saying I'm in agreement that we should have the same policy as Rebelscum, being it's the sister site.

 

Stay classy, TFN.

 

The censorship ain't exactly foolproof, like, at all. You could just exchange an ing for a in' and get by it. Don't get me started on compound swears, I could probably rattle off a giant list of ones that won't get picked up.

Then again, I know nothing about website coding and don't know whether it's possible to detect and word within another word.

 

We only have about four words in the auto-filter, actually, the assumption is that users familiar with the rules will star out the words on their own. If they don't, well, there are moderators for that sort of thing.

 

I still think the whole word should be starred out. This makes common sense in an area like the JC, but take one step into the E7 forum and you see how many kids are still posting. And as someone who was young + innocent on the JC not horribly long ago, I actually wasn't aware of a lot of swear words nor did I see them all over in real life. Just need to consider that some people hear it all the time and are desensitized, but the rules are there for people who are...young and not desensitized yet. Besides, it's just starring out a word. Takes 2 seconds.


(also not to be totally contradictory but I think there's another 4 letter word that's a bit more harsh than the f word nowadays)

 

FYI, waaaaaaaaay back the policy used to be that you could use the first letter but then had to star out the rest.

Then some uptight **** decided to alter the policy for no good reason despite it working perfectly fine for years. Nothing wrong with going back to it.



Oh, and whichever 4 letter word came into your head when reading this says more about you than it does me.