An unintended consequence of family-friendly word filters

[mota bhai 2,675]

An article from the New York Times (not Playboy or Hustler) about soldiers in remote parts of Asia using rape as a weapon of war ran afoul of the new word filter. The female body part which is subject to the act of rape (it starts with v and ends with a) was censored.

I assume this is a mistake and not the original intent of putting in the word filters, so I wanted to bring it to Admin's attention.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

And so is ####### Cheney's first name. The man may be an evil son of a but noone deserves to have their name censored.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Another unintended consequence. The Admin team will be all over this, of that I have no doubt.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'd censor fiddlesticks too. We can't be having filth like that thrown around.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

I'd be happy to revise the language filter if there was a way to improve the smarts behind it.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

We shouldn't even be having this discussion.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I'd be happy to revise the language filter if there was a way to improve the smarts behind it.

You own the technology backend of this site, so I defer to your expertise on that.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Why do the words have to be filtered? Why not leave them as is.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Why do the words have to be filtered? Why not leave them as is.

Because family friendly.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Ok we need to have a conversation about a word that describes bad things, sometimes refers to poop, and doesn't begin with s. c-r-a-p is not a curse word nor is it unfriendly to families.

Other is issue is being censored for saying "####### for tat".

C-r-a-p was definitely not filtered before recently, so obviously there has been some change that you can perhaps roll back.

[Boiler 45,525]

What amuses me is that if you are subscribed to a thread you get the unedited text, but the simple solution is just to go back and edit it with spaces whatever.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Ok we need to have a conversation about a word that describes bad things, sometimes refers to poop, and doesn't begin with s. c-r-a-p is not a curse word nor is it unfriendly to families.

Other is issue is being censored for saying "####### for tat".

C-r-a-p was definitely not filtered before recently, so obviously there has been some change that you can perhaps roll back.

Stop talking about tits and won't be no problems. Damn.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I found a member of the moderating team who found an ingenious method to circumvent the word filter. I assume this has the blessings of Site Admin seeing how it's being done by a member of the moderating team.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Ok we need to have a conversation about a word that describes bad things, sometimes refers to poop, and doesn't begin with s. c-r-a-p is not a curse word nor is it unfriendly to families.

Other is issue is being censored for saying "####### for tat".

C-r-a-p was definitely not filtered before recently, so obviously there has been some change that you can perhaps roll back.

Plenty of synonyms:

Feces

Excrement

Arsebiscuit

Shite

No, the word filter is just bad comedy.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Hail Ming!

[Anna Grant 169]

Many years ago, I remember a filter that used to blank out the name of a certain town in England in internet forums, e-mails, etc - in fact, the issue got the name:

'Scunthorpe Problem':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

BTW - this Wiki page has some non-family friendly (or should that be family non-friendly) words in it. The 2nd 'News Article Damaged' one made me laugh - what the word 'assassinate' was changed to!