Adult language - or "undignified adult language aka: cussing" can get you blocked on many computers containing parental filters. Well, that can cost you money, visitors etc. I think - maybe a lot. So what is your all's take on the matter? How much do you allow on forums, blogs?
Why limit adult language?
- Thread starter Jason76
- Start date
I allow moderate swearing, but nothing too derogatory. For the most part, we're all adults, we should be able to communicate without using slang or crude language. However, to be fair, most of our cuss words are said innocently.
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Deleted member 44219
But it depends on your Target Audience and the Average Age of your Users. If you're focusing on a Site more aimed towards People around 17 - 21+ then there really is no need for a Language Filter(Unless it's Racist or Discriminatory Language). If it's a Site dedicated to more Younger People around 8 - 14 then there should be a Language Filter for any Inappopropriate Words.
Another thing that you need to remember is that People can easily bypass these Words. So to combat those Bypasses, you'll need to remember all of the times you've seen someone bypass a Language Filter and common Words that are used to Bypass Selected Words in a Filter.
Another thing that you need to remember is that People can easily bypass these Words. So to combat those Bypasses, you'll need to remember all of the times you've seen someone bypass a Language Filter and common Words that are used to Bypass Selected Words in a Filter.
Since I'm on a Christian forum it's expected that profanity gets filtered out because there are many Christians who take offense. I know many Christians who also swear but they oblige those who don't like it and that's good.
There are some cultures where swearing is practically expected! It's shocking to someone like me who is from the midwest to learn that certain words are not considered profane in some countries.
There are some cultures where swearing is practically expected! It's shocking to someone like me who is from the midwest to learn that certain words are not considered profane in some countries.
It can be a huge turn off, even for adults that swear themselves. There's just some swear words that are a bit too intense for a valuable and informative discussion... Even in a heated debate, certain insults or words just come off as overly abrasive and ruin the quality of the discussion. There's definitely a time and place for swearing, but I think a website should definitely have some guidelines even if they allow it in general. For example, excessive swearing should definitely be banned, even if saying the F word in a sentence like "flip yeah" is allowed too. I think if you're going to allow swearing, you should at least keep in mind that some people (cool people even) will not want to have discussions if people are swearing all the time.
One other thing to keep in mind is that some sites (like Reddit) use points or reputation to keep communities in line. Sure, swears are allowed, but if you swear too much or when it doesn't make sense then people will -Rep or "downvote" your content... so the natural consequence of excessive or unnecessary swearing is that people will ignore your content or try to make it disappear another way.
Many communities can also allow swearing, but ban "low quality content". If a post is full of swears and not much meaningful content, or just uses swears excessively then the post could be removed for being low quality. So, there's a lot of ways to tell people "you can swear", but also make sure it doesn't get out of control too.
It's all about your target audience though. I prefer to keep my content & projects swear-free, or very minimal swearing at the least. I like to showcase my online work to friends and colleagues, so having a website or community with a lot of swear words in the content doesn't make me look good... 🙂
One other thing to keep in mind is that some sites (like Reddit) use points or reputation to keep communities in line. Sure, swears are allowed, but if you swear too much or when it doesn't make sense then people will -Rep or "downvote" your content... so the natural consequence of excessive or unnecessary swearing is that people will ignore your content or try to make it disappear another way.
Many communities can also allow swearing, but ban "low quality content". If a post is full of swears and not much meaningful content, or just uses swears excessively then the post could be removed for being low quality. So, there's a lot of ways to tell people "you can swear", but also make sure it doesn't get out of control too.
It's all about your target audience though. I prefer to keep my content & projects swear-free, or very minimal swearing at the least. I like to showcase my online work to friends and colleagues, so having a website or community with a lot of swear words in the content doesn't make me look good... 🙂
It really depends. If it's just fuck, shit or crap, then it's probably fine, although you probably don't want people using them constantly as it can grate on people.
Certain other words like slut, whore, cunt, etc. are extremely crass and drops the quality of public discourse by more than I can really tolerate.
And anything which you'd feel comfortable showing to younger users would likely be posted by a vetted staff member rather than a random forum user who likely knows how to bypass the filters anyway.
Certain other words like slut, whore, cunt, etc. are extremely crass and drops the quality of public discourse by more than I can really tolerate.
I don't think it's legal for me to knowingly serve users under the age of 13 (forums aren't really safe for young children either), so for all intents and purposes, it doesn't really matter.
And anything which you'd feel comfortable showing to younger users would likely be posted by a vetted staff member rather than a random forum user who likely knows how to bypass the filters anyway.
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Deleted member 44219
Well some Kids Websites to my Knowledge do have Forums. An example of this is the Kids Game, ROBLOX. All though ROBLOX doesn’t have its Forums anymore, it still was a Kids Game and had Forums. It also did censor a lot of Words for people under 13.
It is banned for a reason and I believe requires parents or guardians to mail in permission slips under the law.
The reason for that is that paedophiles tend to gather around places with a lot of children.
It's not the classical argument of "are the children mature?", it is literally that you can and will get way in over your head in trouble.
It really isn't worth the hassle and it's legally dubious to begin with.
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Deleted member 44219
True. Some Forum Softwares Like SMF have the ability to send Mail to the Forum Admin to allow their child to be registered.
Pedophiles are an increasingly growing problem in today’s Internet but they’ll always be here no matter what.
But of course, even if you don’t allow Children to sign up, they can easily bypass it anyway.
I think it depends on the targeted audience or the niche of the forum. I tend to cuss here and there, but not all the time. My new forum is more targeted towards adults so I don't mind if my members wish to cuss here and there too.
I personally think everything should be open for freedom of speech. But advertisers don't play that way. In past they used to take objection towards adult stuff. Society has changed now but still Google controls the ads and so they prefer not having those words in the sites to avoid advertisers pulling off.
I believe that most conversations should take place without any profanity, since the web is so huge, you never know what type of audience is going to stumble across your page. That being said, I understand that a majority of people swear innocently but this can often be misinterpreted. I feel like its more of a respect thing, being professional overall but having adult zones where swearing is free game. Forums and Blogs are completely different though, I think it's up to the administrators discretion on how they want to manage their space.
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