Civility filter

Sou · August 2016

Just a heads up. There's a civility filter in place, replacing certain specified words with "tsk!". If you think a word you wrote should not have been filtered, let me know by sending me an email or private message (use your Inbox). If you see language that you think isn't suitable here, you can flag it or otherwise let me know that too, because I can change the filter.

metzomagic · August 2016

Aha. I was wondering why I saw "bat [tsk!] crazy" in a comment :-)

Sou · August 2016

A term I've used. Might be best if I clean the filter and allow that one

FlyingDutchman · August 2016

I usually don't support filters against 'bad words' since I tend to be somewhat foul-mouthed myself, but keep in mind: worst case scenario, you simply kick off an arms race of ever-more-inventive swearing to get past the filter. I doubt it'll come up very often since (hopefully) we're all a reasonably civilized bunch here, but might be better to rely more on establishing a polite forum culture, with occasional mod interventions for severe transgressions.

dcpetterson · August 2016

I'm not one for filtering individual words. I'm more offended by the meaning of offensive speech than I am by the words used. I'm with Lenny Bruce on this issue.

Sou · August 2016

You'd have to see the list. It's not very long. I removed quite a few words from the original list before I activated it. It has words that I don't ever want to see written here. Not just because they are vulgar, but because they would turn too many people away from the forum. (If the word "shit" was picked up by the filter, it must have been accidentally mis-spelled with a 1 instead of an i. I've since removed the misspelt word from the filter, too.)

dcpetterson · August 2016

Thanks for the explanations and expansions, Sou.

I'm aware that individual people can find specific words or forms of expression to be offensive, and I'm sensitive to the issue of not wanting to chase anyone away. Whenever I visit someone else's blog / forum / whatever, I view myself as a guest, as I would if I visited their home. Just as I wouldn't intentionally spill wine on the carpets or flick burning ash from my cigar onto their draperies, so I wouldn't purposely violate whatever rules they establish for communication. It's just not respectful to the host. They did the work of setting the place up, so they get to make the rules.

Contrail Chook · September 2016

Sou said:

You'd have to see the list. It's not very long.

Might be an idea to make the list available for anyone who wants to know in advance. Could save a bit of bother down the track. FD is right about people tending to get inventive when crossed.

Sou · September 2016

Contrail Chook, I'm not sure that everyone here would be familiar with some of the terms on the list, and the list isn't really suitable for a polite forum like this one

To clarify - all the filter does is replace the censored word with tsk!. It doesn't prevent the comment from being posted. If anyone finds that's happened they can plead their case for the word to be taken off the list if they want to. (I've refined/trimmed the list from what it was, so I doubt anyone will find a tsk! in their comment any more.)

Contrail Chook · September 2016

Your call. I wasn't suggesting publicly quoting the list though. More that if anyone wanted to know it could be posted as an attachment that people would have to choose to open.

Sou · September 2016

PM me if you'd like a copy, CC (or anyone) (Use the inbox up top or email sou at hotwhopper dot com).

Contrail Chook · September 2016

I'll probably just experiment, and see what I can get away with when thinking up descriptions for Malcolm Roberts.

dcpetterson · September 2016

I might stick tsk! randomly in my comments just for emphasis. It's as good a word as any

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