Rude words filter

[mc2fool]

Is it possible to tweak the rude words filter so that it doesn't filter out some normal words that have a rude word as part of their spelling?

One specific instance is Infrasonic's post at viewtopic.php?p=529800#p529800, which quotes an article that starts, "Following the recent Twilio hack leading to the leakage of 2FA (OTP) codes, cybercriminals continue to upgrade their attack arsenal to orchestrate advanced phishing campaigns targeting users worldwide." (my underline)

The word arsenal in Infrasonic's post is replaced with [expletive deleted], obviously 'cos it has a bum word (pun intended!) in it, but equally obviously it is a perfectly good non-rude word. Some Gunners supporters posts have also been similarly censored!

I have, in the above, defeated the rude words filter by embedding some BBCode in the middle of arsenal, but it would be good if posters didn't have to learn and use such tricks for that and other such words. Is there an exceptions mechanism in the filter?

[Urbandreamer]

With a nod to Douglas Addams, Oh Belgium!

[bungeejumper]

Aaah, the Scunthorpe effect. Anybody remember when AOL refused to allow any sign-ups from people who lived in that town? And the public libraries that wouldn't allow schoolchildren to access information about Essex, Wessex or Sussex?

Largely fixed these days. (Scunthorpe got through the TLF filter, didn't it?) And if you're Indian and blessed with the Brahmin name Dikshit, you don't need the 1 on your keyboard. The world has grown up a little bit.

BJ

[stooz]

Sally we have to cater for people extending the 1st word with more already like bumwipe.

Its a paradox I can't appease both.

[Lanark]

You can put a wildcard just at the beginning or end of the word so you can make the word censoring quite selective.

People often extend a rude word but rarely (or much less often) prefix it with anything.

Also you can put the same word in twice, so
*rudeword
rudeword*

[mc2fool]

Sally we have to cater for people extending the 1st word with more already like bumwipe.

Oh please don't call me Sally ... except on those special Saturday nights....

[mc2fool]

You can put a wildcard just at the beginning or end of the word so you can make the word censoring quite selective.

People often extend a rude word but rarely (or much less often) prefix it with anything.

Also you can put the same word in twice, so
*rudeword
rudeword*

But can you say "arse*" but not "arsenal"?

[Mike4]

And on another forum I frequent it is the habit to modify one's spelling to defeat the profanity filter whilst keeping the meaning clear.

Arrse. See what I mean?

And quite a few use the (related) Benny Hill method. Filters are a road of ol' borrocks. See what happened there?

[dave559]

Surely we are all grown-ups here (or, if we do have any child investing prodigies in our midst, they'll surely also be worldly-wise enough to cope with some swear words)?

Yes, it is probably right that the site aims to discourage (but not necessarily ban) swearing, but is there really anyone these days who might find themselves so fracking offended by the occasional "colourful metaphor", not that I imagine any forum members would really be inclined to overdo it?

[moorfield]

Language evolves, always. Cnut used to be a hugely offensive word for example, but is commonplace now. It's impossible to keep up.


(Which reminds me of that genius Blackadder episode (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b ... capability). Every single word, sir ?)

[GeoffF100]

I had trouble referring to the substance with atomic number 33.

[Clariman]

Surely we are all grown-ups here (or, if we do have any child investing prodigies in our midst, they'll surely also be worldly-wise enough to cope with some swear words)?

Well there is no age filter on the site so we cannot guarantee that there are no child investing prodigies. However, taking your premise that "we are all grown-ups here", I'd say that if we are grown-up it shouldn't be too challenging to restrain one's temptation to use profanities. Besides there are people who do get offended and upset by such words.

I think finding naughty and clever ways to get around the filter suggests to me that we might not all be grown-ups ??

[mc2fool]

Surely we are all grown-ups here (or, if we do have any child investing prodigies in our midst, they'll surely also be worldly-wise enough to cope with some swear words)?

Well there is no age filter on the site so we cannot guarantee that there are no child investing prodigies. However, taking your premise that "we are all grown-ups here", I'd say that if we are grown-up it shouldn't be too challenging to restrain one's temptation to use profanities. Besides there are people who do get offended and upset by such words.

I think finding naughty and clever ways to get around the filter suggests to me that we might not all be grown-ups ??

Yeah, but what's rather happening is people are being frustrated by the filter stopping them using perfectly normal words like arsenic, arsenal and Arsenal!

How about dropping the filter for arse* (anything starting with arse) and just filtering out arse and arsehole?

[Mike4]

Surely we are all grown-ups here (or, if we do have any child investing prodigies in our midst, they'll surely also be worldly-wise enough to cope with some swear words)?

Well there is no age filter on the site so we cannot guarantee that there are no child investing prodigies. However, taking your premise that "we are all grown-ups here", I'd say that if we are grown-up it shouldn't be too challenging to restrain one's temptation to use profanities. Besides there are people who do get offended and upset by such words.

I think finding naughty and clever ways to get around the filter suggests to me that we might not all be grown-ups ??

Yeah, but what's rather happening is people are being frustrated by the filter stopping them using perfectly normal words like arsenic, arsenal and Arsenal!

How about dropping the filter for arse* (anything starting with arse) and just filtering out arse and arsehole?

On another forum I use with (I suspect) the same profanity filter, we all routinely defeat it by mis-spelling the sweary words, should we wish to use them.

I doubt all the child prodigies here will be horribly corrupted by the made-up word "fark", for example.

Edit to add, didn't Princess Anne start the trend by telling reporters to "Naff orf"? We all know what she meant.

[mc2fool]

Surely we are all grown-ups here (or, if we do have any child investing prodigies in our midst, they'll surely also be worldly-wise enough to cope with some swear words)?

Well there is no age filter on the site so we cannot guarantee that there are no child investing prodigies. However, taking your premise that "we are all grown-ups here", I'd say that if we are grown-up it shouldn't be too challenging to restrain one's temptation to use profanities. Besides there are people who do get offended and upset by such words.

I think finding naughty and clever ways to get around the filter suggests to me that we might not all be grown-ups ??

Yeah, but what's rather happening is people are being frustrated by the filter stopping them using perfectly normal words like arsenic, arsenal and Arsenal!

How about dropping the filter for arse* (anything starting with arse) and just filtering out arse and arsehole?

On another forum I use with (I suspect) the same profanity filter, we all routinely defeat it by mis-spelling the sweary words, should we wish to use them.

That's not the problem here; the issue is people having to defeat the filter to use non-sweary words!

[AsleepInYorkshire]

a.rsenal
a.rsenic

AiY(D)

[mc2fool]

a.rsenal
a.rsenic

AiY(D)

Exactly.

[Lootman]

a.rsenal
a.rsenic

AiY(D)

Exactly.

As I recall TMF at one point tried to prevent people from finessing the rules and filters, and sought to punish Fools who did an end run around the rules by misspelling swear words and the like. They would remove posts that, say, replaced vowels with an asterisk, such as "f*ck", not to mention "fcuk" and the like.

At some point it just becomes silly. There are all kinds of behaviours I would prefer to not see here. But even as one who rarely feels the need to use expletives, at some point the parental puritan approach just comes across as petty and pedantic, as well as futile.

[88V8]

a.rsenal
a.rsenic(D)

Exactly.

Since when has that word been a problem?

V8

[mc2fool]

a.rsenal
a.rsenic(D)

Exactly.

Since when has that word been a problem?

V8

Which word?