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Censor the "A word"


HebaruSan

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Rule 2.2.g bans "Use of vulgarity, profanity and any technique that skirts the language filter." Accordingly, most words I knew growing up as "swear words" cannot be posted on these forums. A usually strange sounding synonym is inserted instead.

There's an exception though, the three-letter one starting with "A". I've been noticing it more and more lately. I realize this is a subjective thing and we'll all have our own point of view, but to me it makes the forums look like a place where vulgarity and profanity are welcome.

I suggest this word be replaced with "donkey" when found in a post.

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I agree that we have no need for profanity on these forums; after all, KSP is played by many children. But I think you might want to think about the edge cases here, too.

When I was young, ass was one of my favorite words because I knew it was dirty, but I could say it and mean something different. Donkeys were a frequent topic of discussion in 3rd grade. Similarly, there were some favorite bird species, too.

But when you get the forum software to replace all the versions of these words, you get instances when it goes too far. The software isn't able to find the context you say something in, and will even censor words that have profanity as a segment IIRC. When I am talking about the glass windows on the Lunar Module, I don't want to end up saying "The LM had gdonkey windows to see the landing site."

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10 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

There's an exception though, the three-letter one starting with "A".

Unfortunately the basic filter we have in IPS doesn't recognize word separators, but will filter any occurrence of the "A++" sequence. There are a number of perfectly legit words that would be changed in something different, "mass" e.g. could automatically become "mdonkey" with the proposed change. Therefore why that word isn't catched by the filter, better if we catch it by eye (with the help of forum users, of course). Hopefully we will find and install a better filter in future.

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1 hour ago, diomedea said:

Unfortunately the basic filter we have in IPS doesn't recognize word separators, but will filter any occurrence of the "A++" sequence. There are a number of perfectly legit words that would be changed in something different, "mass" e.g. could automatically become "mdonkey" with the proposed change. Therefore why that word isn't catched by the filter, better if we catch it by eye (with the help of forum users, of course). Hopefully we will find and install a better filter in future.

Thanks for the response, it helps to know the background. That's a pretty tough limitation for the moderation team to deal with, but this does sound like a confirmation that this content is on the other side of the line drawn by 2.2.g in your judgment. (I don't think I'll start using the report button for this, regardless.)

Would this filter work? It has a "whole words only" option, but I don't know what version is used here or precisely how the upgrades work:

https://invisionpower.com/news/new-word-and-link-filters-r987/

582c5929e9b8b_Posting2016-11-16t7sz2.png

@Tex_NL, hi! Your sig may be one of the primary reasons this has been so visible lately. Is it using some other meaning of the word, out of which I could pull my nose? We're fortunate to have the option of non-automated discretion in this case, so it can't hurt to ask.

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I dont use the nonverbose version of the biological waste disposal that much. Neither does anyone i know use it. So i dont know if its appropriate or not. But 1 less swear word is fine. Nobody really uses it that often.

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7 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Why was my post deleted? Are we not allowed to express opinions?

Mine was deleted too. Apparently you're only allowed to participate in this discussion if you agree with it.

But I agree with you. Most people won't even notice a word until it gets perverted to something silly.
Besides that a censor won't trigger on word from another language. Or a benign word in English that's insulting in another language.

If I REALLY wanted to I could make a dockworker blush without even triggering the censor once.

Edited by Tex_NL
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1 hour ago, ZedNova said:

Ass isn't even a vulgar word. I don't see a reason to censor it.

Nor did I, that's why it's not on the filter, the word itself is not inherently bad, but if people use it to insult others there's a perfectly good report post button.

The filter is a very useful website feature, and this site isn't the only one to have a filter, so it'll continue to be used for the worst words that aren't really required for discussion of rockets and little green aliens.

So the filter will remain in place, but 'ass' and it's ilk aren't going to be on it any time soon.

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14 minutes ago, Sgt Doomball said:

The A word is not bad it is used in the Bible many time because that was the name for a donkey back then.

And it's still the name for a donkey for pretty much every English speaking country except the US.

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Personally, I see no reason why we need to censor it. If you live in 'murica, you're allowed free speech. It's sorta in that limbo between bad and acceptable. (Words like stupid being in acceptable, words like F being in the bad). I mean, I'm not a mod; I'm just one of the masses, so my opinion doesn't really matter when it comes to these kinda decisions. Just kinda putting my thoughts out there.

1 hour ago, sal_vager said:

Luckily 'crap' has been used plenty of times by KSP's developers :wink:

Who else saw the last SpaceX landing? They are getting pretty good at it :D

 

Ohh I want to see that! Could you kindly direct me to a thread where- ooh you're a staff member... Probably heard that IRL and not in a thread... *derp*

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On 2/19/2017 at 4:05 AM, Dman979 said:

I agree that we have no need for profanity on these forums; after all, KSP is played by many children. But I think you might want to think about the edge cases here, too.

oh for crying out loud™

I refuse to believe that anyone old enough to understand KSP and be able to use the KSP Forums doesn't know swear words.

Seriously, be honest with yourself. You're gonna tell me that you learned swear words when you were 15? 8 year olds these days already know 70% of the profanity vocabulary.

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4 minutes ago, Aperture Science said:

I refuse to believe that anyone old enough to understand KSP and be able to use the KSP Forums doesn't know swear words.

Seriously, be honest with yourself. You're gonna tell me that you learned swear words when you were 15? 8 year olds these days already know 70% of the profanity vocabulary.

I think that there are young kids playing here. I know eight-year-olds who play, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that some of them might be here.

Also, I learned curse words in 4-5 grade, but I never really used them until I was 14 or so.

But this is tangential from the OP.

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