Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
use of profanity is not all so bad. as stated by hippo here, it's real easy to simply ignore it and move on. personally if a poster has so little creativity and imagination that they so limit their vocabulary, i can know to filter that post(er) out and move onOriginally Posted by spankythehippo
"The good man is the man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to become better."
John Dewey
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
It probably is my fault this thread even exists but it's not intentional. You tend to take over expressions from other languages without really thinking about it. This is an international forum where English is the norm so accidents happen.
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
I haven't noticed this bad language..?
You have to define why swearing is or should be edited here:
1) For reasons of censorship (PG13 site, etc)
2) Because of the reasons PVC stated i.e.
"The point is - swearing is intellectually lazy"
"It's lazy and it lowers both the tone and the content of our debates [...] We don't need to swear here to have grown up discussion, quite the opposite."
"that people have been swearing without understanding how to swear, which is just childish."
Personally I think editing swearing and enforcement of a no swearing policy is a complete waste of staff time, ruins discussions, is intrusive and more likely to piss members off. It will kill debates more often than maintain them. If it's for PG13 reasons - then enable the word censor and be done with it, otherwise, you're just re-educating people which is not the role of a computer gaming forum...
Insults are another matter, it's possible to insult someone without use of profanity however...
You have to accept that some people are not as eloquent or as educated as some of the posters here (myself included), but still may have valid points to to make. This kind of thread simply comes across as plain old fashioned snobbery and may even send out a message to some that the .org is a "high brow" forum...
That said, it says a lot about the .org when members simply volunteer to tone it down - rather that than staff involvement.
tl;dr - Much ado about bugger all...
“The majestic equality of the laws prohibits the rich and the poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing bread.” - Anatole France
"The law is like a spider’s web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up.” - Anacharsis
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
I've noticed one or two instances that caught my attention lately, but never thought there was a pattern.
A couple of weeks ago I said that (paraphrased) "if the creationists don't like evolution in science textbooks, they can go to hell". If that's swearing, then it at least serves a purpose - it illustrates how strongly you feel about something, and it's brief. And it was overall a long post.
And I recall using the word "shitty" from time to time. I never understood why that's considered a swear word anyway, but then again that goes for a lot of them.
I guess I do swear every now and then, and I don't particulary care either way. If the mods decide to enforce Victorian speech taboos I'll abide by them. It's perfectly possible to be crass, and more fun, by using normal words instead of vulgar ones. "Dear sir, it seems you're suffering from verbal diarrhea. Please stop posting, I don't want to catch whatever you have".
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
Plain old fashioned snobbery?You have to accept that some people are not as eloquent or as educated as some of the posters here (myself included), but still may have valid points to to make. This kind of thread simply comes across as plain old fashioned snobbery and may even send out a message to some that the .org is a "high brow" forum...
That said, it says a lot about the .org when members simply volunteer to tone it down - rather that than staff involvement.
tl;dr - Much ado about bugger all...
Ah, well that would be an insult.
Swear words are either insults against a deity (blasphemy) a curse (duh) or a reference to bodily functions (profanity)
You can make a valid point without swearwords and in fact swearwords would contravene Backroom rules as well as the PG-13 rating.
An excellent example - cursing someone to Hell is actually highly offensive if that person believes in Hell. You should see the blood drain when you do it, it's very shocking.
Profanity is the least serious form of foul language, but it's none the less unnecessary.And I recall using the word "shitty" from time to time. I never understood why that's considered a swear word anyway, but then again that goes for a lot of them.
Everybody seems to have forgotten - these rules used to be enforced, all asterisks, all the time.I guess I do swear every now and then, and I don't particulary care either way. If the mods decide to enforce Victorian speech taboos I'll abide by them. It's perfectly possible to be crass, and more fun, by using normal words instead of vulgar ones. "Dear sir, it seems you're suffering from verbal diarrhea. Please stop posting, I don't want to catch whatever you have".
"If it wears trousers generally I don't pay attention."
[IMG]https://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4917/logoromans23pd.jpg[/IMG]
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
Comes across as.
Obviously, no insult was intended. Perhaps it came across as an insult, if so apologies.
We've had all of this in the past and as an ex moderator I can tell you that moderating swear words is no fun at all and IMO was stifling this place... The constant rounds of editing, warnings, infractions, people playing reporting games, etc was ridiculous. Mods might miss the odd word, or one mod's idea of swearing might differ to another mod's, but in general most of the swearing which was spotted was the stuff which was being reported - and if someone is reporting on someone else, it's often due to some kind of history or bad blood... utterly pointless.
Personally I think it's good that you've raised this issue and that members have responded positively in that some of those involved are willing to tone it down. That is in my honest opinion the right way to tackle this, rather than resorting to the staff safety net approach.
Cursing to hell seems like flaming, more so than just language... but it depends on context, the intent and those involved. If it's just banter between two friends, then it's surely not an issue...?
Last edited by caravel; 11-15-2012 at 17:30. Reason: typo
“The majestic equality of the laws prohibits the rich and the poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing bread.” - Anatole France
"The law is like a spider’s web. The small are caught, and the great tear it up.” - Anacharsis
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
This explains my view on profanity (and others here, judging by comments) pretty well.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
Why is that offensive? Are they God? Do they have the power to curse someone to hell (assuming it exists)? Swear words are just words. Nothing more, nothing less.
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
In this specific case, it's not whether that person actually goes to hell, but that fact that someone would wish it upon them (even if it isn't done with serious intent).
Swear words don't physically hurt people, but they can hurt the sentiments of some people, who might not be thick skinned enough to withstand verbal blows. It's rare these days, specially online, but not non existent.
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Re: There has been too much foul language here of late.
I am God, yes, but I like to keep my anonymity, so please don't make a big fuss. Usually I only reveal myself to the ladies at night...
Still maintain that crying on the pitch should warrant a 3 match ban
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