Biological Reproduction and Physical "Gender".

[Whirligig Girl]

Why is it that S E X can not be used on the forums? Seriously, I know there's some issues here with allowing it, but given that this is the forum of a science game, S E X ought to be allowed, at least in the Science Labs. S E X and Gender are also not the same thing, Gender is mental while S E X is biological. And there is an important distinction. Honestly, I think that the fact the word is censored is more inappropriate, because it essentially forces you to think about the word being used in a dirty sense. I even did a little test on this once last year, where I showed people a paragraph about biological reproduction, but where S E X was censored. They all invariably laughed at the censored version, whilst those viewing the uncensored version simply gave a dull, bored look and went along with their work.

And in the Science Labs forum, there's a whole category of biology, which prominently features reproduction. I understand that on some kind of unmoderated archive of some kind this may be a problem due to trolls, but isn't that we have moderators? If the word is used in the wrong context then it can be removed? Is it really that important to keep the forum super-child-friendly in a game that covers concepts most 5 year olds can not grasp? For Kraken's sake, I was fully and accurately educated about human-reproduction by the time I was 8 from a scientific standpoint!

Maybe this is all bull, or maybe it boils down to politics, but I still don't think the word should be censored. Just moderated. Maybe you could even have all posts with that word sent through for moderator approval.

[RainDreamer]

Huh. Didn't even know that. I don't think there is that much of a censor anyway, since you can easily circumvent it as you did in your post. Maybe it is just included in a stock list of censored words.

That said, thanks for clarifying the differences between se x/gender. That means a lot for some people, but some just assumed they are the same.

[CaptainKipard]

GregroxMun are you a psychologist?

I'm slightly leaning in the direction of loosening the rules regarding that word. I had seks-ed when I was 10. It's not a big deal. Teenagers today aren't as sheltered as they were in puritanical societies anyway. That test GregroxMun described is quite funny.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[Red Iron Crown]

Reported for dodging the profanity filter.

Kidding.

I agree that the censor is annoying at times. I have referred to this book and this guy before, only to have the censor silently remove words from them. It was better when it replaced censored words with **** IMO as it was easier to notice that you'd tripped it. "Se x" seems to be an unnecessary restriction, there are enough legitimate uses of the word in common usage that I think it doesn't need to be censored.

Edit: LOLOL it even censors the link to the book. It's Moby D!ck by Herman Melville, a literary classic.

[CaptainKipard]

By the way, guys, I doubt anything is going to change. The few of us can type eloquent rationales filled with impeccable arguments, but in the end that's not what matters to those in charge. It's even difficult to influence the more trivial changes, like [solved]/[unsolved] tags for questions in the modding section.

[MartGonzo]

It's not as odd as the word -that shall not be mentioned- being banned given that you can't really talk about the history of rocket science without mentioning operation paperclip.

Edited December 10, 2014 by tetryds
There are better ways to refer to that.

[*Aqua*]

I can only guess this kind of censorship is based on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

I think that's superficial. Everybody swears sometimes. That's nothing bad it's just the way how we are.

[RainDreamer]

I can only guess this kind of censorship is based on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

I think that's superficial. Everybody swears sometimes. That's nothing bad it's just the way how we are.

The thing is, this is not even swearing. Even academic papers use this word. There is no reason for censoring it aside from it possibly being abused by 12 years old for some raunchy talks (or perhaps worse, someone pretending to be a 12 years old, but that is a whole another problem that isn't gonna get solved by any kind of censor).

[rodion]

i agree that this is definitely a stupid filter, not just for the ultra-puritanical sÑÂx filter, but as a general concept. i think a wise man once said that the hallmark of a perfect society is not when all bad words are banned but when the idea of banning them is made meaningless because nobody would have any reason to use them in the first place. filtering words is not in accordance with the spirit of a community that has overwhelmingly distinguished itself as a highly welcoming and non-toxic place to be.

[pxi]

I'd love to talk about this book but the profanity filter makes it impossible.

EDIT: Actually, no it doesn't. Surprised me, that did.

[KasperVld]

The sociological/biological debate of the difference between s ex and gender is such a niche corner of science that it alone is no reason for me to remove the filter for the word. That debate, and a few closely related topics in science are simply not enough to warrant the removal of the filter, this is after all a forum where people of all ages (this includes children) should be able to access. As a result we have a rather short list of words that are banned to protect the more vulnerable people here. Dimorphism is an interesting topic but it falls out of the scope of Kerbal Space Program, and a gender discussion very quickly borders on political or ideological discussion, both of which are banned in the Community Rules.

Swear words are a different category of course, and the same reasoning applies as with the s ex filter, but added to that is that those words tend to cause more harm than good in discussions, where their use will inflate to the point of.. well.. perhaps what you hear in your average multiplayer Call of Duty game. A well constructed argument does not need them. Discussions devolve into a shouting match instead of focussing on what is the core of the subject.

Considering the topic of this thread, I'll go ahead and close it now.