What do you consider "swear words"? What words should be "censored" and what words are fine to show?
I strongly believe that we tolerate too much swearing recently. This is not because I'm offended by the words, but because using the words means they lose impact. I rarely swear, and when I do people take notice.
I also recall as a child getting in trouble for the word "damn," a word that now days people don't even think twice about using.
On the other hand, I also think that censoring the words, such as writing "f-word" or "f--k" is not that much different then writing the word out. I mean, is anyone thinking I meant "fork" there?
While I don't want to see people's answers filled with swear words, referring to those words in correct context should be in someway allowed. When I taught American English and read passages of Mark Twain I said every word, but taught my students that some works can be used in context of literature are not appropriate in every day speech.
So, when and what do you decide to censor?
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M$10 Answers
I wrote a book recently whose characters are mainly teenagers. They curse a lot, but I deliberately left out the F word and GD's because it would have offended my family.
I gave my sons rules for cursing. They couldn't use curse words around older people. They couldn't use curse words around girls unless they heard the girl using the word first. If they hit their thumb with a hammer or something similar, all bets were off, and they would be forgiven.
Mahalo should set its own rules and the people who come to this site should respect them.
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M$
People Swearing
http://www.silentwulf.com/flash/Swearing.swf
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M$
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M$
On the other hand, around many people and in the Mahalo Answers Community, I wouldn't because I know many people wouldn't appreciate it, though, as you and Emmess said, in a certain context, it would be understandable.
In short, I censor as the situation demands.
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M$I can understand not having certain words in the main questions, but sometimes they are appropriate.
For instance, what if someone were to ask about the etymological origins of a particular 'swear' word? Or cultural reactions to it? Or foreign language translations? etc. etc. etc.
Since there is already the NSFW category, perhaps there should be a category to include such things (or perhaps the NSFW category is already appropriate -- however, including a swear word is not the same as extreme sexual, etc. content.). However, it should also be easily possible for members to view ALL questions with no restrictions (perhaps there already is) when they bring up the main page if that is what they choose to do. I know that's what I want to be able to do.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Like some mentioned here, it's not a bad idea to be respectful to the community, swearing generally isn't needed but again always isn't meant to be harmful, so I decide on a case-by-case basis.
As always, the abuse reports are the #1 way to deal with offensive swearing, I don't think top level censorship is necessary.
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M$
I was more talking about self-censoring than Mahalo censoring.
I love this video I just found on digg:
http://digg.com/comedy/The_Funniest_Bleeping_Video_Ever
I'm considering showing it to my students to start a dialogue about swear words and why certain ones have become common place and others still hold power and hate.
ah, I see, carry on then
So, I don't know that I even have an opinion about what Mahalo should decide is offensive and what isn't. I'm bothered by none of them, so I couldn't help advise where to draw the line. It's tricky, because everything is offensive to someone! You'll never please them all.
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M$
If an individual or a group wants to sensor words they should censor them individually.
Technically, it is possible to write a greasemonkey script to filter out any words that you don't think are appropriate. Many parental monitoring software packages also have this feature.
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M$
That's pretty much the way I see it. I don't think of the n word as cursing, I think of it as hate speech. Literature is different of course. What about music? I'm not crazy about rappers using the n word.
That's funny, when I taught swearing had 3 levels. 1. Appropriate cursing was if you got hurt. 2. Inadvertent swearing was if you were talking and a word slipped out. This was punished, but lightly. 3. Directed swearing was aimed at someone. This was considered almost as severe as an physical threat.