Thread: Forum word filter is a tad too aggressive.

I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say that I think the forum's word filter is a bit out of control. While I'd prefer no filter at all, I understand why the censorship is in place to a certain degree. However, ours seems to have gone off the deep end to the point where normal conversations between members run into it all the time.

The latest example is Viprdude's comment here where he tries to say sophоmoric but the word filter sees "hоmo" and censors it.

There are many words that use those combination of letters that are completely unoffensive. The prefix "hоmo" is very common in the English language and we can't talk about hоmogonized milk or hоmosapiens or anything else meaning "similar" without it.

There are countless examples of someone trying to use a word with "cоck" in it that get censored for no good reason. We can't talk about cоckpits or something being cоcked to one side or most recently someone being cоcky (originating from the way a rooster holds his head up) without running into censorship.

There are many other words on the word filter list but these are the two problematic ones from what I've seen. Is there a way to recognize when the character combinations of C-O-C-K and H-O-M-O are on their own with no adjacent characters (other than spaces or punctuation) and when they are part of a word? Even hоmosexual is going to be fine to let through I'd imagine. Yes?


I'm not asking that we get rid of the censorship on anything else. The real trouble are the two offenders listed above. I'm not even saying we should get rid of the censorship on them entirely (although I would if I thought it would gain any traction). I'd just like to see the letter combinations not censored in such a blanketed and indiscriminatory way.

Is it possible to do the censorship differently maybe with regular expressions?

yeah i cant stand when the censor curses...

stratton.

Maybe words can be added to a whitelist? Is that possible Crim?

We could just add a whole bunch of words to the whitelist and call it a day and then add some more as they come up in the future.

I'm also wondering how or why some of these words even got on the filter. It's like the filter was designed for a Sesame Street chat room and not tailored to our forum at all. I guess that's a question for a different day.

Agreed

I write exactly as I speak. I work in bars, and have a foul mouth.

Throw in an "*" and the word is clearly understandable and readable.

Sophom*ric. Hom*sexual. H*mophobic.

However, having to throw in a "*" makes me really think about the words I am choosing. Which many, many folks on-line do not do. The thinking part.

On the other hand, I can easily 1) report offensive usage of the words in question. Or 2) I can voice my concerns politely (for me) like I did recently and see what the person really intended. http://www.sr20-forum.com/offtopic/30761-unique-autosports.html#post399292 Or 3) I can attack the person over their verbage, hijack the thread, and flame the living sh*t out of them for their offensive diatribe.

The real issue, and the reason for the filter, is that folks simply ignore or are ignorant to Matt's directives as stated in this thread:

http://www.sr20-forum.com/offtopic/178-please-read.html

If folks actually read that, comprehended, respected, and followed it, there would be no need for any filter.

As it stands, the filter just makes folks think about their choice of language. Do you really want to say "that" (whatever it might be)? If so, insert a "*" and type on. If not, perhaps choosing a different word might be appropriate.

Shawn B

I spawned a thread for discussion, neat. I was thinking the same thing as Ben started off. I could not understand it until I typed the word very slowly that "h o m o" even appeared in the word. Never thought about it until now.

I noticed the "soph*moric issue in your post as well.

I am rather used to f*cking typing right along, sh*t I do it all the time, and inserting "*" when I desire to make my posts.

Maybe I shouldn't say this...but I un-edit and un-censor myself rather automatically.

However, I am not one to obliviously and ignorantly use fa*got, ni*ger, sp*c, K*ke, h*mophobic nor prejudiced or bigoted remarks of any sort.

Some folks may use that verbage on purpose and with intent. Those bigots would get an "automatic reminder" of the Forum Rules when they try to type such ignorance on our forum.

Some folks may use that verbage, as they do speaking amongst their close friends, with no ill intent or intrinsic bigotry. They call their friends "nig*a" and type without thinking about the bigger picture. Forgetting that this is a very public privately owned forum. And as such, they should really consider communication on the forum as public speech (not "free speech", remember it is privately owned). If they would not pop off with that "lingo" at a multi-cultural crowded bar, the Forum Filter automatically reminds them that perhaps they should rethink/edit/type their remarks.

I would love it if we could have no Forum Filter. In an ideal world, that would be terrific.

As it stands, the Forum Filter is really just an automatic reminder-device. Whether the person typing was or was not thinking about their word choice.

As I have (f*cking) demonstrated, anybody that wants to circumnavigate the Forum Filter can easily do so. However, it forces the person typing into a conscious decision.

In that regard, the Forum Filter serves a very useful purpose.

Shawn B

Hey Shawn, what if the filter could be adjusted to allow obviously unoffensive words that just so happen to get caught up in the fray as it is right now?

That's really what this is all about. Should someone really have to think twice before they use a word like sophоmoric? Same goes for cоckpit or similar. I mean why should I have to think twice when using the word hоmophobic? That don't make no sense. =]

I'm not about to try and argue to remove the filter or even get certain root "words" off of it. I just want to try and eliminate the collateral damage if we can. I'm a pretty tech-savvy guy and I've worked with my fair share of hardware and software. I know it's possible to make the filter better. If it is in fact easy to do so, then why not?

I'm down with that. No issues whatsoever if it could be fine tuned. In fact, that would be terrific.

Just wanted to point out the reason for the Forum Filter is valid and it serves as a useful "reminder" function.

However, if quote "collateral damage" could be minimized, that would be great.

We're on the same page sir.

i have heard if we go to 2 letter words that we'd kill the search engine..