Profanity rule -- time to drop it?
More enforcement? Ignore unless directed at another commenter? Drop it as a relic of the old days that doesn't apply anymore? Careful use of asterisks? Try to voluntarily refrain unless it seems necessary for emphasis?
I think it helps promote civil discourse but I also think I'm one of the few who really cares anymore. I'm not interested in an ongoing struggle to censor honest expression. On the other hand I don't like the extreme cursing that occurs, for example, at dKos, and would prefer we not go too far down that path.
Whaddya think?
Submitted by Brendan on Thu, 2007-06-21 17:21
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No, you are not alone
I think excessive profanity is a sign of poor vocabulary and, as on dKos for instance, does not always help illustrate the point. It does not endear me to the diarist. It can be a great distraction from what they are trying to communicate.
An occasional word is fine. We all say them. Sometimes they fit. But I appreciate the asterisks and abbreviations, personally, or the more creative use of language.
If someone is offending me or just annoying me, I will say so, here. Matches my fun-Nazi role ;}
"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge" -- Kahlil Gibran
Thanks, that's good to know
I feel like a fun-Nazi sometimes too...
We'll see how the majority feels. And f--k 'em if they decide wrong ;-)
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
LOL
I think the rule should stay. Just because these days it is just entirely too easy to swear in sheer and complete frustration. With a little creative liscense as pico says.
It is the economy, stupid.
While I do enjoy a creative use
of certain profanities, I have to say that I often regret when I use them in the heat of an argument. I'd prefer the rule stays, with possible exceptions for those moments of creativity that really demand a good, hearty profanity.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Profanity is like spelling
A person who uses an excess of profanity as a substitute for an argument, is like the guy who types in all caps or constantly misspells (thank you Firefox spell check), they damage their own argument, and embarrass those who might agree with them.
On the other hand a creative use of profanity can be both humorous and enlightening. I read someone's comment the other day, describing Bush, that opened my eyes to a whole industry I was totally unaware of. Who knew that there is not only a market in the dirty underwear of little girls, but that it has a specific Japanese name.
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
Keep the anti-profanity rule
I think it helps in a small way to keep the discourse civil and substantive. And if a bad word simply must be used in a sentence, there's always the asterisk key.
skymutt: wise and powerful... enlightened...
Not that I participate here that often but...
…my vote would be to keep it!
For all the reasons mentioned above plus I think a site losses credibility when its members constantly use profanity, it lowers the discussion and civil discourse.
Also a lot of people blog from work and the IT Nazi’s like to use filters that pick up profanity and ban those addresses… not good!
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
That's a good point about filters
Do you guys have an official rule at the Minority Report or just sort of an informal agreement?
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
We do have an official rule of no profanity
Also we have a lot of VIP visitors (party officials, senators, congressmen and their aids) I suspect we wouldn't keep them coming back very often if we allowed profanity.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
F***in' Aye,
Steven
Okay
Yes, I got it, but yes, I coulda gone without it.
;}
"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge" -- Kahlil Gibran
Sorry, but
rules still apply even in diaries questioning those rules (regarding the edit of your comment).
lol... quite right
at least for another day!
But we promise not to star out wonk, Mad =)
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Funny, Brendan
When I made that response, i thought the astericking was automatic. I wouldn't have made it otherwise. Remember, I've recently been at a site that encourages such language, and it took me a year to loosen up enough to use it! It's not a normal part of my lexicon, even at home. My wife swears more than i do.
The board that astericked 'wonk' was automatic, apparently with a list of forbidden words.
Anecdote
I sometimes converse on an international board now based in Germany. At one time, it was hosted in Wales, but the person hosting it moved to Spain. This board is almost dead now, (it was cleared out by "the Californian" as we called him, who systematically abused everyone in the board who wasn't liberal enough for him).
One day, I referred to some pundit as a "policy wonk." I got an immediate automatic form e-mail letter telling me that the use of profanity would not be tolerated. The letter was non-specific, so it was only when going over some of my comments that I noticed that 'wonk' appeared as 'w**k.'
A day later, i got an e-mail from the man hosting the site telling me that any further use of this profanity would cause my immediate and irrevocable banning from the site.
I wrote him asking him to explain to me what the profanity involved was, but he wrote back to say that the word was so foul that he would not discuss it, and any further questions would cause me to be banned.
I have no idea to this day what was going on, since the site manager never did more than voice his "Wales" about it.
Anyone have any idea?
I would keep it
I t seems things get heated enough around here without throwing a little gas on the fire. Also, people seem to do fine with the asterisk substitutes.
What made you think about changing it? Tired of playing mother hen?
Basically, yah.
But it seems more people are in favor than not so far.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Ender set me up
as full admin now, so I will keep an eye out too to take some stress off of you.
I don't care much either way.
If Specter and pico agree on a position then I feel obligated to vote the opposite just out of spite! :)
Republican Maverick at Large
-4:Strongly Disagree; 0:Meh; +4:Strongly Agree
Can't we all just get along? :-) n/t
I am still away
but thought I'd chime in on this. I would also prefer we keep the rule no matter the desire to use a word here and there. Asterisks work in those cases.
Definitely helps with the auto-censoring filtering programs, and at the same time helps keep the tone more civil and respectable.
At the same time occasional slip or like pico says creative use is nothing to worry about. Keep it out of titles and appearing on the front page, but asterisking it everywhere else is cool.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Don't drop it.
And I'm one of the posters who frequently butts up against the rule by using the less provocative curses here.
Seriously, if you wanted to drop the F bomb, all you have to do is type in an f and 3 astericks.
Keep the rule...
...just be lax in the enforcement. The point being to keep the place clean, not pristine.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Regarding the profanity rule:
I believe that there's a limit as to how much profanity or "blue" language, as it's sometimes called, should be used on the internet. First of all, as a number of posters here have pointed out, too much of it obscures the real issue(s) at hand.
Secondly, one never knows who may be lurking on a given forum/website, and and posts can be traced directly to the computer, and therefore the poster, from where they're posted. People have gotten into trouble for it.
I'm not exactly a Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms myself, nor am I any stranger to profanity, by any means. However, there's a limit, and many forums do, in fact, have very firm rulings against the use of profanity. An occasional 4-letter word or two is OK, and the astericks come in handy, also.
Not incidentally, I've been chewed out on a certain other forum for expressing opinions such as these.