Pre-Qualifiers for this question:

a) I'm new here
b) Not sure this is the right board
c) Maybe I've missed a previous thread
d) Perhaps I'm a brute

...but...

I noticed today that the board automatically *****'d my use of a particular 4-letter word, commonly considered "bad" among Christians as it refers to someone being sent to the netherworld (ie. where Satan, etc. rules)...

Although I respect the decision of the moderators/software developers to automatically screen for expletives, it does beg a few questions for me. Would love to hear your thoughts on this as well:

a) The word in question really isn't a swear word.
b) I think that a frequent flyer board is likely to be principally used by people over 13. Those folks are likely to be able to appropriately filter expletives for themselves, and don't necessarily require a "posting nanny"
c) I'd be more concerned about preventing against personal attacks than deleting swear words if it was up to me...of course, I'm not the moderator
d) People _do_ swear in real life...no joke. All the time, in fact. Especially at UA customer service staff, it seems. But, seriously, swearing is a valid part of the English language, and doesn't deserve to be censored any more than the word .....rdly deserves to get someone fired.
e) Censorship sucks in general...and it's pretty transparent anyway (if you read my post, you'll know exactly what word I meant) - so why bother?
f) Who decides what words get censored, anyway? I'm sure if we looked at the list, we'd all find something to get p.o.'d about (ie. words not censored) - so again, why bother in the first place?

...anyway, I know this is a relatively minor thing, and shouldn't bother me, but I just wanted to see if anyone else thought that they could self-filter/self-police... seriously, all opinions (although not expletives) are welcome.

<G>


Edited for your enjoyment


[This message has been edited by gabrielz (edited 03-10-2001).]

[This message has been edited by gabrielz (edited 03-10-2001).]

I believe it is a built in feature of most of these UBB's?

Some boards take it to extremes. On the eBay chat boards for instance you cannot type sentences that have combinations like "who reads" or "who really" etc as the censor reads it as a 5 letter reference to a lady of the night and deletes both the words.

Even legitimate airport info like the large Japanese city whose 3 letter city designator is F*K cannot beat this UBB system.

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~ Glen ~

Gabrielz,

I would ask why you feel the need to use an "offending" word in a post. We are trying hard to get this board back to a certain level of civility and posting words like that do not help.

From the diversity work I do, I know there are american phrases that are damaging or insulting to non US citizens... I try not to use them.

Of course, the BBS system probably does not know them as they are usually US based systems... kinda like all the airline/hotel sweepstakes and contests!

In addition, you agreed when joining this particular board NOT to use that language. So, bottom line, Randy has it as a Term-of-Service.

Just my two cents.

William

Well, in the first place, it prevents us from conducting a thorough discussion of Dante's Inferno in OMNI.

When did D*mn stop being a swear word? I must have missed that day of class.

I don't know anywhere that the word for condemn could be considered offensive. Even my 1975 dictionary doesn't mark it as such.

Personally, I believe censorship is wrong. If you don't like what people say and find them offensive, don't read them. If they really are offensive, everyone will ignore them, or boot them off the board.

However, if there are words which are truly offensive to the majority of readers, I guess it's a fair enough compromise to censor those for the sake of the feeble-minded people who really care.

There used to be about 7 words which couldn't be used on air in Australia. Now it's down to 1. Censoring anything beyond those very few words is taking political correctness to its ultimate, ludicrous extreme and pandering to a tiny minority, just the way UA does by chopping its films to bits.

The main point is context. If someone posts a quote of something said to them, we should be able to read the original text, not ****. If someone posts about an itinerary through ***uoka, it should appear unmolested by the software.

Of course Kremmen, Victoria is the state where the high court has ruled that the English homonym to the airport code for that Japanese city that starts with "F" is no longer legally offensive. Jeff Kennett even used it in his radio ads! (Maybe that's why he lost.)

Seriously, while I agree with you in principle, it is Randy's board. You pays your money (or not, as the case may be) & takes your chances.

Sometimes I think it's more fun to play the game. After all, we all can say what we mean, even if it's roundabout. I remember the graffito markered inside the overhead bin on a TWA flight many years ago: "Icahn --heart symbol -- Sioux City". If you know the airport code, you get the joke.

[edited to add Icahn joke]

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.

[This message has been edited by LexPassenger (edited 03-11-2001).]