The Ultimately Pointless Thread On The Subject Of Removing The Swear Filter

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by Frumious B

I know that a lot of forums have profanity filters and I respect that. However, I attempted to mention Herbie Hanc.o.c.k. in a thread earlier and your filters asterisked out the last four letters of his name. This is definitely not hate mail, just something to look at.

Edit: Oops, this is the wrong thread for my comment. Sorry.

I don't know if you considered this fact, but word filters can't tell if you "mean" something offensively or not. It's simply a coded instruction to block a letter combination regardless of whether it's in a larger word or not. I'm sorry, but we can't teach software how to interpret intentions, nor can we change the rules regarding what's blocked.

[TheCunningStunt]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

I don't know if you considered this fact, but word filters can't tell if you "mean" something offensively or not. It's simply a coded instruction to block a letter combination regardless of whether it's in a larger word or not. I'm sorry, but we can't teach software how to interpret intentions, nor can we change the rules regarding what's blocked.

Wasn't 'gay' unblocked?

[Freebase Dali]

Originally Posted by TheCunningStunt

Wasn't 'gay' unblocked?

Yes, but gay isn't considered a swear. Why it was censored, I don't know.

Originally Posted by Frumious B

It's just that the name of the forum is Music Banter. It seems to me that you shouldn't have to resort to chicanery to type the name of a fairly famous and high profile jazz musician. I was on a baseball forum once where I couldn't type the name of the Atlanta Braves' manager without it being asterisked out. How stupid is that?

I know it's not the way for the new guy to make a good first impression, but it's asinine. Why should legitimate music discussion be held hostage to hangups over "Our Precious Moral Values TM"?

I'm sure most other people here already realize this, but our swear-filter isn't going away any time soon because of the google ratings this site gets due to its implementation. There may be some words currently filtered that could be a candidate for unblocking, but in the overall scheme of things, we'll just have to understand the reasoning behind it and not view it as an attack on liberty or some kind of governing moral standard.
If the price of using this free forum of which the owner spends money on is to accept certain mechanisms integrated into his forum, then that's something we simply have to deal with until other options are available, regardless of whether they seem asinine or not.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

Yes, but gay isn't considered a swear. Why it was censored, I don't know.



I'm sure most other people here already realize this, but our swear-filter isn't going away any time soon because of the google ratings this site gets due to its implementation. There may be some words currently filtered that could be a candidate for unblocking, but in the overall scheme of things, we'll just have to understand the reasoning behind it and not view it as an attack on liberty or some kind of governing moral standard.
If the price of using this free forum of which the owner spends money on is to accept certain mechanisms integrated into his forum, then that's something we simply have to deal with until other options are available, regardless of whether they seem asinine or not.

Plus, the filter doesnt block specific discussion of Herbie Hancock, just the last four letters of his name. Unfortunately the swear filter is not that advanced to the point it can actively follow discussion. Shame.

[GuitarBizarre]

Originally Posted by mojopinuk

Plus, the filter doesnt block specific discussion of Herbie Hancock, just the last four letters of his name. Unfortunately the swear filter is not that advanced to the point it can actively follow discussion. Shame.

It is, it just hasn't been set up to do so. See above.

[Frumious B]

Originally Posted by mr dave

i just make Herbie Hanc0ck super leet when i talk about him.

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

I don't know if you considered this fact, but word filters can't tell if you "mean" something offensively or not. It's simply a coded instruction to block a letter combination regardless of whether it's in a larger word or not. I'm sorry, but we can't teach software how to interpret intentions, nor can we change the rules regarding what's blocked.

It's just that the name of the forum is Music Banter. It seems to me that you shouldn't have to resort to chicanery to type the name of a fairly famous and high profile jazz musician. I was on a baseball forum once where I couldn't type the name of the Atlanta Braves' manager without it being asterisked out. How stupid is that?

I know it's not the way for the new guy to make a good first impression, but it's asinine. Why should legitimate music discussion be held hostage to hangups over "Our Precious Moral Values TM"?

[Janszoon]

Originally Posted by Frumious B

It's just that the name of the forum is Music Banter. It seems to me that you shouldn't have to resort to chicanery to type the name of a fairly famous and high profile jazz musician. I was on a baseball forum once where I couldn't type the name of the Atlanta Braves' manager without it being asterisked out. How stupid is that?

I know it's not the way for the new guy to make a good first impression, but it's asinine. Why should legitimate music discussion be held hostage to hangups over "Our Precious Moral Values TM"?

You're right that's it's asinine but unfortunately we're stuck with it for now. It's not something the moderators are able to change. And for the record you have to resort to fancy maneuvers to avoid Dick Dale being censored as well.

[GuitarBizarre]

Originally Posted by Janszoon

You're right that's it's asinine but unfortunately we're stuck with it for now. It's not something the moderators are able to change. And for the record you have to resort to fancy maneuvers to avoid Dick Dale being censored as well.

It is something the admins can change though. Ive used VBulletin before and it can be set up to whitelist words if they're used in certain ways, while still censoring the word on its own.