Swearing

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Originally Posted by Sigurd

How would you translate: "Forbanna faen i Helvete" ?

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Yeah, well that's nice and dandy, but what you find offensive is apparently the translation of the word "damn", not "damn" itself.

I don't see how that's relevant to a majorly english-speaking forum. People are using damn in english, and in english, it's probably the less offensive swearing one could think of.
Why should we care about how the translation of "damn" in norwegian, german, spanish, french or russian is perceived?

If people start using "forbanna faen i helvete", yes, then you can give them a warning because it's apparently a quite offensive swearing. But "damn" is not.

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Originally Posted by Meneldil

Yeah, well that's nice and dandy, but what you find offensive is apparently the translation of the word "damn", not "damn" itself.

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If I were to take offence to every word which are literally swearing in Norwegian but just words in English or any of the other languages spoken on this forum - I would have been in trouble.

The word "Damn" is a religious expletive in English and its translation to many of the languages on this board is also a religious expletive, all though significantly stronger in my language.
Viking might not think so, but then he is a young bloke which might think it is ok to swear around his grandmother or children in general. I don't know.

Besides, it is not you who decides what goes and what does not. It is the Moderators responsibility to keep things in the spirit that TosaInu has set. Due to the nature of this board with many nationalities, cultures and world views - we have in the gameroom set a standard.
If you don't like it - there are many other places on this board where you can express your need to use religious expletives and mild profanity. In the gameroom, at least, it is frowned upon.

I got a detention for using the word 'damn' in an English essay back in school. It was pointed out that it is a profanity and blasphemous. Mind you that was back in 1971. :embarassed:

I took my punishment like a boy. (I was only 11 :wink:) It wasn't too bad as for my dentention we all got to share an hour with Miss Boulanger, our 21 year old French mistress with legs up to her neck. Happy days!

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Originally Posted by Sigurd

If I were to take offence to every word which are literally swearing in Norwegian but just words in English or any of the other languages spoken on this forum - I would have been in trouble.

The word "Damn" is a religious expletive in English and its translation to many of the languages on this board is also a religious expletive, all though significantly stronger in my language.
Viking might not think so, but then he is a young bloke which might think it is ok to swear around his grandmother or children in general. I don't know.

Besides, it is not you who decides what goes and what does not. It is the Moderators responsibility to keep things in the spirit that TosaInu has set. Due to the nature of this board with many nationalities, cultures and world views - we have in the gameroom set a standard.
If you don't like it - there are many other places on this board where you can express your need to use religious expletives and mild profanity. In the gameroom, at least, it is frowned upon.

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Is it .org policy to be tougher on religious expletives than on profane expletives?

Do the other moderators agree with this? I mean, I am not going to be discriminated against, be a member of a board that protects religious sensitivities more than my sensitivities.

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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Is it .org policy to be tougher on religious expletives than on profane expletives?

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No.

The moderators are however human and unpaid. If you think they have overlooked something, feel free to use the report button which is found on every post.

I think it's good to keep in mind that the somehow strict policy is for the Gameroom.

Playing games is fun and even more if you're involved and really going for it. But people sometimes lose control when playing games. It happens to everybody and for several reasons, usually because one is losing or because one thinks his team members are making a big mistake.

Expletives, no matter how mild in common usage, have the potential to make posts sound more aggressive. If one responds in kind, threads become inflammatory rapidly.

That's probably why my colleagues at the Gameroom decided to have a zero-tolerance policy on "strong language".

The Gameroom is an environment where one can have lots of fun, but because of its' nature, threads can go ugly very quick.

With that in mind, the zero tolerance in the Gameroom is perfectly understandable.

Just like the Gameroom, the BR, because of the nature of its' topics, also has the potential to have threads going from interesting to really ugly in no time and sometimes it just takes nothing more than one post which could be perceived as aggressive.

Also, don't forget that when you post on an internet forum, there's no body language and it's impossible for a moderator to know if you're joking, serious or deliberately trying to derail a thread in a flame war when you post something that sounds a bit aggressive or "stronger than usual".

As a member, when writing on an internetforum, you have all the time to think about your post, write it, review it, change it and then finally decide to post or not to post it.

The only thing we ask is that you do exactly that before posting: take your time and make sure the post says what you want to say without having the potential to offend or to make a thread going "downhill". Don't get personal. Don't post in an "I know it all" condescending or patronising way. And don't post aggressive. Adding a word like "damn" (which, as a word, in itself may not be so bad on its' own), can make a post just that extra bit aggressive which can be enough to ruin a thread.

I know it's not exact science, but being a bit careful when you post, makes the lifes of your moderators, who have to read all your posts and have to take into account all this stuff while doing so, easier.

So please, respect etiquette at all times. I know that probably means that you'll have to be more civilised, friendly and polite than you ever are in RL, but so be it. This is an internetforum where we communicate with written text and written text alone, this is not real life.

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Originally Posted by Just Vuk Again

You don't like me very much, do you Ser Clegane? :P

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That's a really unfair statement, Vuk.

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Originally Posted by Sigurd

How would you translate: "Forbanna faen i Helvete" ?

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If you start with swear words in language A, you should end up with swear words in language B, IMO. If 'damn' is not considered a swear word in English, I probably wouldn't use it when translating your sentence; since the translated sentence would be weaker than the original one.

While the first of your words might indeed be translated into 'damn', it would loose its true meaning otherwise used in a religous context. It is though even in Norwegian among the weaker swear words, as far as I know the word.

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Originally Posted by InsaneApache

I got a detention for using the word 'damn' in an English essay back in school. It was pointed out that it is a profanity and blasphemous. Mind you that was back in 1971. :embarassed:

I took my punishment like a boy. (I was only 11 :wink:) It wasn't too bad as for my dentention we all got to share an hour with Miss Boulanger, our 21 year old French mistress with legs up to her neck. Happy days!

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My grandma used to wash my mouth out with soap for saying damn or Jebus Christ. All y'all are getting off easy. Lava soap with pumice was the worst.

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Originally Posted by Vladimir

Wanker.

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I don't know about you guys but I am incredibly offended by this mans words! I demand action and retribution!:smash:

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Originally Posted by Veho Nex

I don't know about you guys but I am incredibly offended by this mans words! I demand action and retribution!:smash:

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*** Reports Veho Nex for quoting explicit material ***

Not so funny now, eh, Mister Comedian?! :smash:

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Originally Posted by Veho Nex

I don't know about you guys but I am incredibly offended by this mans words! I demand action and retribution!:smash:

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I actually reported it, but nothing was done. Curse those moderators. :smash: :clown:

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Originally Posted by Andres

That's a really unfair statement, Vuk.

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You don't like me, do you Andres? :(

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Originally Posted by Andres

The Gameroom is an environment where one can have lots of fun, but because of its' nature, threads can go ugly very quick.

With that in mind, the zero tolerance in the Gameroom is perfectly understandable.

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Well, some of the confusion comes from the fact that I very rarely edited out swearing in the gameroom. I don't think there were more arguments back then though. Telling people to cool it stifles the arguing. Generally the game mod can handle that.

I noticed though that the general forum members idea of what kind of swearing is acceptable is about the same as the current moderator crew, just a bit more lax. The only words there's a real difference on are the ones being talked about here. And **** (as in "take a ****").

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Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro

Well, some of the confusion comes from the fact that I very rarely edited out swearing in the gameroom. I don't think there were more arguments back then though. Telling people to cool it stifles the arguing. Generally the game mod can handle that.

I noticed though that the general forum members idea of what kind of swearing is acceptable is about the same as the current moderator crew, just a bit more lax. The only words there's a real difference on are the ones being talked about here. And **** (as in "take a ****").

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Well, you could always use "Go and take a dump." or "I really don't give a smelly backside" or "this tastes' like Sasaki's cooking".

Tons of alternatives which aren't using certain words.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

Well, you could always use "Go and take a dump." or "I really don't give a smelly backside" or "this tastes' like Sasaki's cooking".

Tons of alternatives which aren't using certain words.

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Sure, and that's the reason we have the rules on swearing and why almost everyone supports them to some extent. It's nice to not read offensive things, and the moderator crew is looking out for the minority who are more sensitive to words like hell and damn.

I do feel like they are overjustifying it in response to some of the criticism lately though. With the rules being eased up, there would be more "lite" swearing, it's not like the org would become a cesspool and war would break out in the gameroom.

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Originally Posted by Sigurd

The word "Damn" is a religious expletive in English and its translation to many of the languages on this board is also a religious expletive, all though significantly stronger in my language.
Viking might not think so, but then he is a young bloke which might think it is ok to swear around his grandmother or children in general. I don't know.

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Are you going to ban the use of the word "Satan" because Vittu Satana Perkele is quite offensive in finnish? Because that's exactly what you're doing here with damn.
I still don't see how one word is used in a language could be used as a reason to ban said word in english. Last I know we speak english here

I perfectly understand that my opinion doesn't matter, as I'm not a moderator, but I'm still allowed to express it, thank you.

I agree with the side with the argument which will result in less infraction points for me if such argument is turned into policy and implemented.

Oh dear how is this thread still alive?

Profanity is the crutch of the conversational cripple.
-David Keuck

Profanity is the attempt of a small mind to utter something profound.
-Tom Landry