[Closed] Swear filter

Hope so, I got a 3 week ban without even getting any opportunity to defend myself after "deliberately" avoiding the filter (in fact I was about to edit the portmanteau I wrote when I realised it got through but the hammer had been swung before I even got a chance). I think out of three warnings only one was deliberate.

This one I can see. It was over a year ago and it was your fourth warning in a many months (one of which wasn't swear filter avoidance (but was still sweary)).

If you felt it was unfair you could've explained and we'd have reviewed it. The majority of post-ban emails we get are people throwing their toys out of the pram and so get ignored, but if anyone goes "hey, look, sorry, it was a mistake, I was going to change it" it'd probably be overturned.

Despite common complaints to the contrary, people very very rarely get a ban for a single offence unless it's gross misconduct.

@cougar, nope fanny and fud are pretty much interchangeable. Indeed with the word as per OP.

Fair enough.

TBH, 'fanny' is an innocuous enough word, it's akin to 'bum' and 'willy'. In the US you can buy fanny packs, which initially amazed but then ultimately disappointed me.

I think theres a fair bit of regional variations in mothers too

Perhaps a better rule might be "would I say it in front of someone else's mother?"

. Places like the aforementioned place in the Scottish Isles (there's two IIRC, one in the Shetlands and one in the Orkneys)

One near Aberdeen and one on the Cromarty Firth. I one lost my heart to a girl from Nigg (the Cromarty one). You can fill in the rest.

If you felt it was unfair you could've explained and we'd have reviewed it. The majority of post-ban emails we get are people throwing their toys out of the pram and so get ignored, but if anyone goes "hey, look, sorry, it was a mistake, I was going to change it" it'd probably be overturned

I did, and I got nothing in reply, quite polite too. Guess I annoyed someone.

At the end of the day we're all adults and it's not like this is either a workplace or school so it does come across as heavy handed. You can say that people shouldn't have to see that sort of thing but then the childish bickering and conflations of pedophilia with other transgressions is also completely unnecessary but then nothing gets done about that. Of course a better technical solution would be to ban words containing and then make exceptions from there but that would require some technical thought and effort and we all know how likely that is 😉

TBH, 'fanny' is an innocuous enough word, it's akin to 'bum' and 'willy'. In the US you can buy fanny packs, which initially amazed but then ultimately disappointed me.

Don't forget it's also a name from a long line of Fannys.

I think out of three warnings only one was deliberate.

Way more than 3. 😀

I did, and I got nothing in reply, quite polite too. Guess I annoyed someone.

Are we were busy doing other stuff.

I did, and I got nothing in reply, quite polite too. Guess I annoyed someone.

My mistake, so you did. And you did get a reply, I've just read it.

it does come across as heavy handed.

It has been in the past, certainly. As I said though, it's been discussed since, so hopefully should have improved now.

If it's so offensive a word, perhaps that should be included in the swear filter too.

We discussed this at length a little while ago. It's a swear filter, not a censorship tool. Whilst "****" might well be offensive, it's not a swear word in and of itself.

[quote=Cougar ]The filter uses an exact match which nicely avoids the S****horpe Problem but means that it's ineffective against variations that haven't been explicitly added (*er, *ed etc)

Good job - wouldn't want to get into ho****er for using a totally innocent word.

I find the word **** significantly more offensive than the word ****, anybody that thinks otherwise is a bellend.
.

Cougar-cheers for the explanation, I shall continue to rely on the filter....

Did I? Seriously, didn't hit my inbox. It's done now in any case, just glad there's some room for common sense being given these days.

I swear a lot and am not easily offended, but I would like to point out that "twit" with a different vowel is on a par with the "c-word" in some areas of the country.

And in some parts of the country the "c-word" is a term of affection.

I find the word **** significantly more offensive than the word ****, anybody that thinks otherwise is a bellend.

But as I said, it's a swear word filter, not an offence filter.

And in some parts of the country the "c-word" is a term of affection.

Context is king. I'm cheerfully happy to be called an effing cee by a good mate, it is indeed a term of endearment in that context. However, it's still swearing and I'd wince if it happened in front of my mother.

This is the previous discussion:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/is-it-racist

It's a 25-page mini-epic but pages 9 through 11 pretty much cover what I'm trying to convey here. I'm not going to repeat myself over another two dozen pages of squabble, go read it.

Perhaps a better rule might be "would I say it in front of someone else's mother?"

Given that I'm in my mid 30s, most most of my female friends are somebody else's mothers. Some swear even more than me.

TBH having a swear filter on an internet forum is about as effectual as trying to use a sticking plaster to plug a hole in the Three Gorges Dam, especially one as ineffectual as STW's. But, it seems to keep you mods happy and sort of protects you from naughty words I suppose.

And yet some how it works.

Who is it for? The average user here seems to be a grumpy mid 50's Scotsman.

I think you'll find it's a grumpy mid 50's IT working Audi driving scotchman.

Who is it for? The average user here seems to be a grumpy mid 50's Scotsman.

It's here I would guess because

Not everyone fits that demographic

Anyone can read the forum without registering (I think?), which would include minors (as opposed to miners)

Because there's a decent, nicely written magazine behind all this and the owners presumably don't want it cheapened by mumsnet/Facebook group swearathons that detract from the content.

Have you read the content of some of the Facebook MTB groups? The unfiltered language, uninterrupted and casual throwing around of F's and Jeff's just makes most of the comments unreadable vile garbage. Not swearing forces you to write properly (well most people) and this place is imo much better for it.

At the end of the day we're all adults and it's not like this is either a workplace or school so it does come across as heavy handed

Admittedly I've been here for a while, but I've always known what the swear filter will, well, filter...them's the rules. It doesn't seem to distract from the forum's utility, or popularity, and hasn't ever really changed much (apart from the application nuance admitted by the mods up there). It's only heavy handed if you're continually determined to circumvent it.

And yet some how it works.

How so? The filter has been demonstrated as very easy to defeat, and there's actually far more offensive guff written that isn't picked up because it isn't a swear word. I just simply don't understand its purpose. Who are you trying to protect by stopping us from writing synonyms of
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or

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Because there's a decent, nicely written magazine behind all this and the owners presumably don't want it cheapened by mumsnet/Facebook group swearathons that detract from the content.

TBH it's just fine the way it is. Not being allowed to use a few words hopefully causes folk to raise their writing standards.

Not being allowed to use a few words hopefully causes folk to raise their writing standards.

As mentioned a few posts up, you should check out the writing standard on some other forums. Personally I have no problem at all with the swear filter - maybe it could be improved, but on the whole it works just fine. I reckon those complaining about it are mostly the ones who would pollute the forum given the chance.

pollute the forum given the chance

What with? Words from the English dictionary? FFS*

*For Ferret's Sake