Swearing

spoffle · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:40

Unfortunately, some moderators aren't consistent or make it up as they go along.

I got a ridiculous infraction a while back for talking about getting LED strips from eBay.

The inconsistent part was that I found numerous threads linking directly to them and one of the threads was even started by a moderator.

The mod that gave me the infraction was having none of it and seemed to think it was still applicable. The mod's thread linking to the same strips wasn't edited or removed, no were any of the others.

esoteric · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:40

Let us all grow up and act like adults and completely remove the swear filter.

cheesyboy · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:41

Burnsy2023 said:
Was that in preschool? I've never considered them swear words.

My mum once pulled me up for saying Blimey :rolleyes:

I got it from the Beano.

OhEsEcks · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:41

I was taking the **** ffs. There's already plenty of music in the NP thread that contains swearing anyway.

spoffle · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:41

Freefaller said:
Think about it sensibly.

If it's a gangster rap video, chances are the swearing is going to be excessive. That said if you link with a warning as to what it is it rather than embedding it if we think it is excessive we're more likely to remove the link and leave it at that.

i.e. we're trying to be less harsh with the suspension/infractions for things which add value to the forums. So take the cereal shop incident - a few of the articles contained swearing, it seems daft to stop people linking to the article as it is relevant to the story/discussion. Posting a screen shot of some rude word just to post the screen shot of the rude work on OcUK isn't really adding value.

Anyway, all I ask, is that people post with care, and what I want people to realise that we will be less inclined to suspend for swearing - providing the guidelines now posted are being acknowledged!

I genuinely wish more of the forum staff were this reasonable and logical in their duties.

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:43

I accept we don't get it always right, but if you have any issues email one of us for discussion. I know some of you may have a bad taste from how you may or may not have been treated, but it is better solved offline through a chat without the pressure of onlookers.

As part of making this place better we are trying to be a bit more relaxed about some things - the big thing people bring up is the overly tight swearing rules - so we've addressed that, or at least trying to.

This is a big forum and if we want to improve it it will have to be incremental rather than a cold start.

Burnsy2023 · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:43

spoffle said:
I genuinely wish more of the forum staff were this reasonable and logical in their duties.

Most of the team are like this in all fairness.

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:43

OhEsEcks said:
I was taking the **** ffs. There's already plenty of music in the NP thread that contains swearing anyway.

Yes and I was replying for the sake of other people. It's not always about you my dear.

spoffle · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:43

esoteric said:
Let us all grow up and act like adults and completely remove the swear filter.

The need to swear profusely is often more of a sign of immaturity.

People really should be able to articulate themselves without the need to swear. Certain words more so than others of course.

OhEsEcks · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:44

Freefaller said:
Yes and I was replying for the sake of other people. It's not always about you my dear.

It was directed at Macca. It's not always about you my dear.

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:44

spoffle said:
I genuinely wish more of the forum staff were this reasonable and logical in their duties.

The moderators take the lead from the admins - so if they are failing it is down to myself and my fellow admins. If you feel you have been slighted then get in touch with one of the admins, our contacts are in the FAQs.

Burnsy2023 · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:45

esoteric said:
Let us all grow up and act like adults and completely remove the swear filter.

I, like most of the mod team, don't want the forum full of profanity. This isn't the youtube comments section - we're better than that.

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:45

OhEsEcks said:
It was directed at Macca. It's not always about you my dear.

It's all about me. I have a massive ego.

PS Maybe you should have quoted him then

Pawnless Endgame · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:45

Burnsy2023 said:
Was that in preschool? I've never considered them swear words.

I couldn't speak until I was 5 (hearing/sight loss), so it definitely wasn't pre-school. I picked up the first swear words when I was about 10. Certainly top juniors in primary school (what they now call "year 6").

dowie · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:45

Moses said:
Just use common sense.

not really - the rules have clearly changed now and for the better

for example I got a suspension a day or two after posting a youtube video in which I hadn't noticed a swear word part way through...

obviously it broke the rules previously and doesn't seem to break the rules now

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:46

dowie said:
not really - the rules have clearly changed now and for the better

for example I got a suspension a day or two after posting a youtube video in which I hadn't noticed a swear word part way through...

obviously it broke the rules previously and doesn't seem to break the rules now

Indeed - it is these sort of things we want to avoid. Our moderators follow the guidelines we set. And I accept it was failing a little - so we're trying to be a little more pragmatic about how we moderate the forums.

spoffle · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:47

Freefaller said:
I accept we don't get it always right, but if you have any issues email one of us for discussion. I know some of you may have a bad taste from how you may or may not have been treated, but it is better solved offline through a chat without the pressure of onlookers.

As part of making this place better we are trying to be a bit more relaxed about some things - the big thing people bring up is the overly tight swearing rules - so we've addressed that, or at least trying to.

This is a big forum and if we want to improve it it will have to be incremental rather than a cold start.

I have tried. Unfortunately I just get ignored or told "nope, that's how it should be" whenever I've attempted to bring it up via email.

When I post on the forums about it I get told to email. Which means essentially nothing is done.

Burnsy2023 said:
Most of the team are like this in all fairness.

Not in my experience, unfortunately. As much as we might have disagreed in the past, I can't recall you ever abusing your position as a moderator to get out of a situation.

The same as freefaller. Others, not so much.

Danthus · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:48

Edrof said:
Regardless of the nature of the linked page (news, image, video, entertainment, whatever) - if there are prohibited words in it it isn't allowed.

Comments are difficult to police as they are ever-changing and some articles have thousands of them. You can't expect mods to pick through them looking for certain words. If the comments have immediately clear or excessive swearing at the time of posting then it will be picked up. If something hasn't been picked up it likely hasn't been seen so report it or message a mod. I'm always happy to help and am pretty quick on the email.

So I couldn't link to an article in the Telegraph if it contained a swear word?

ThundyCat · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:49

I always thought you disliked me spoffle.

cheesyboy · 1 Oct 2015 at 17:49

dowie said:
not really - the rules have clearly changed now and for the better

for example I got a suspension a day or two after posting a youtube video in which I hadn't noticed a swear word part way through...

obviously it broke the rules previously and doesn't seem to break the rules now

My only infraction was for a video with a sweary in. I'd only watched it muted, so hadn't realised.

In that instance, I wouldn't have posted if I'd realised, but I also wouldn't under these updated rules, since it was just a random vid in the youtube thread, so not really adding anything useful.