the filter is pretty stupid

Call me old-fashioned, but no, I don't think it should. Am I the only one who would never use that word in an email, for example?

Where I know I will be in the minority is that I rarely even use swear words in emails, text messages, or IMs to good friends...I've actually typed out ****ing before with the asterisks. Yes, LOL @ me.

It's not like I never swear, but having kids, I do so quite selectively. My kids have rarely heard me swear - I'm not perfect, so I'm sure I've slipped around them now and then, but not often.

Right - it has the same meaning either way. So why does it bother you so much that it's asterisked out?

Let's say that 10% of our readership would be bothered to some extent if there was no filter. In many cases, I think one could argue that we shouldn't pander to the minority. But in this case, why not? The inconvenience to the majority is pretty trivial. Does it really take that much imagination or time to understand what the asterisks mean? I disagree that the asterisks interrupt the flow, at least to any great extent. But if they bother you that much, is your vocabulary really so limited that you can't work around the issue?

And then there's the advertisers. I have no idea if there are many that would be bothered by profanities throughout the site, but I'm sure there would be some. Why would 2+2 want to potentially jeopardize advertising revenues just so you can see your clever swear word? I don't know if you've noticed, but you won't see swear words on the vast majority of mainstream sites or print media. I suppose that could be because they're all way behind the times...or it could be because a significant portion of their readership don't want to see that kind of language.

Cliffs: The site ownership likes things this way, and it probably makes some percentage of our readership and advertisers happy - having a few words asterisked out seems to be a pretty minor sacrifice.

Some advertisers may dislike if the site looks uncool, with all those asterixes, giving the few "profanities" that good undeserved visibility. Just a thought.

Not sure if serious.

Here's a clause from one of our past and likely future advertisers:

Guess how many potential advertisers have told me they don't want to deal with us because we're "uncool" due to a lack of swear words?

Hint:

You allow "swear words" anyway, in asterisked form, for everybody to understand, the asterisks make sure everybody notices them. It's just that those asterisks look so censoring, in a ridiculous way. Like if 2+2 took commands from the Bible Belt or something, maybe a bit harsh expression . But if you have to do it, I feel pity, and wait for better, more free times. Big deal.

Agreed.

lol, fixed, thanks.


Asterix could maybe fix the asterisks?

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Well done!

Please ensure that your messaging does not surround any questionable content which includes the following: quoting people who don't know the difference between insure and ensure. In the event that you are associated with inappropriate spelling, reading activity will be halted immediately with the option to ridicule entirely.

so they WANT immature youngsters freely discussing gambling?

wtf kind of advertisers are we dealing with here

sports betting forum, misc gambling forum, multiple poker forums.. that's fine, that's not adult content with no mature discussions taking place.

why don't we have a cursing forum? i'd ****ing love that

Whoopie yea. This is a whoopieing goat idea. Whoopie you to anyone that disagrees

just put an option in the user cp to turn it off. that's available in vbulletin, you know.

+1. Cursing filter can make it hard to understand people at times and is generally a drag.

The default could be having the filter turned on, then all non-members wouldn't have to see the colorful words, and all members too with an issue on this. Couldn't all be happy then?

So an advertiser having immature discussions is okay?

Personally, I would like the filter dropped because sometimes someone will say something, it's filtered, and I don't know what the **** they just said.

I swear a bit IRL and do not generally find bad language offensive. But in the context of a forum I think that the filter is generally a good thing and don't understand why people have issues with it.

Because sometimes it prevents you from knowing what was said. In my example before, I could have used the S word, the H word, or the F word.

I always do this

Sometimes for comedic effect, I'll do like they do in a cartoon and use $%#@.

The solution, as someone else pointed out, seems to be to make it a CP item with the default being on.

It doesn't really matter if call you a dumb ****, or ****, or ****. My intent is clear.

Are you really going to decide how offended you are on the basis of exactly which epithet I used? They're pretty interchangeable imo.

Personally, I'd like to know if you called me a dumb ****, dumb ****, or whatever, but I am not going to decide how offended I am.

Did you try to call me a dumb Pollock in your edit? My background is many nationalities, but Polish isn't one of them.

I never cuss IRL, but I did do this a couple of times. I felt like I was subtly evading my own internal filter so I don't even do this anymore.

I'm not offended by other people cussing (When my daughter-in-law first met me she would apologize after each word, lol.), but I don't think it brings any added benefit to the site to completely get rid of the filter.

The optional thing is interesting, but I can't really wrap my head around that. It interests me that people would care that they could see the words on the screen rather than just in their own head, I just fill in random words for the stars and that works for me.