Swearing

[Andara Bledin]

Wow. The sense of entitlement and self-serving blame-shifting is overwhelming.

There's no point in trying to argue with someone who is so convinced that they're in the right that they've closed their minds to any other possibility.

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

Interesting, given how you don't seem to care much for it when someone bucks your authority:

That is a case of willful disobedience, not a different interpretation of the rules.

but funny, how the people in charge are always such sticklers for the rules, they often actively look for reasons to use their power on people just to be able to enforce the rules. But as soon as someone has outsmarted them they lose it and turn 10 years old again. They're like the people who are losing at chess so they just kick the whole board over.

Did it ever occur to you that the mods can't read EVERY SINGLE post, and perhaps they haven't seen the other posts?

It never does occur to people. They want to automatically assume bias.

Did it ever occur to some mods that not everyone has time to read through a long, drawn out TOS or forum rules post? No, of course not. They assume everyone wants to sit down and read it. Oh, wait, are youi saying it's my responsibility to read the TOS? Just like it's the mods responsibility to do their job and read the effing posts.

Remember - Ignorance is no excuse.

[protege]

Did it ever occur to you that the mods can't read EVERY SINGLE post, and perhaps they haven't seen the other posts?

That's exactly it. CS has several thousand posts, and I'm sure that several hundred show up every day. Do you really think that we have the time to read them all? Some of us work full-time, have families, other interests () and simply can't spend hours reading the entire site each day. With that said, posts do fall by the wayside from time to time.

Back on topic somewhat, I do know people who use profanity as every word in a sentence. They can't put a complete sentence together without multiple curse words in it. Is that the mark of an educated person? I have to say, that it's not. To me, it sounds like someone just found the AOL chat rooms for the first time, and/or is attempting to sound 'tough.' There are plenty of ways to insult someone without calling them a "cocksucker" or an "asshole." Trust me on this. However, if someone has no imagination...they're not likely to call someone a "twinkle-toed fuck pixie"

Profane? Probably. However, calling someone a "TTFP" usually causes their train of thought to derail, and a "what the fuck did you just call me?" to be asked. They're not expecting it. It adds a bit of spice to the argument

[Ree]

It's not always that simple. Sure, the rules might say "No swearing". to the obvious observer, that means no swearing at all. Fine, I can live with that.

But wait, Avatar1982 just said goddammit! Isn't that a swear? oh, but his post didn't get deleted and I don't see an infraction on his profile, so I guess it's ok to say goddammit.

So then I say goddammit, because the mods made it clear that it's ok to say goddammit.

Then I see that Rising_Star_4_U@gmail.com has just said "ni&&er". WEll that's prettyy obvious what she said, and yet, no mod deleted or edited it, and she has no infractions on her profile. Therefore, mods have made it clear that it's ok to say ni&&er.

So yeah, I go with the flow of what I see. It's the authoritative body's job to keep these things consistent. Being in power doesn't mean "Oh yay I get to make all the rules and be Lord unto this domain!" It means you have a lot of shit to do. You have to be fair, you have to be consistent, a nd you have to follow your own rules.

When you allow one thing, you're allowing it for everyone. you can't pick and choose like that. If you let me say nigger, you have to let everyone. You can't let jackfaire say bullshit but ban me for saying bullshit.

Did it ever occur to you that the mods can't read EVERY SINGLE post, and perhaps they haven't seen the other posts?

It never does occur to people. They want to automatically assume bias.

Uh, no.

Then because a mod didn't read the other post and it wasn't reported, but they happened to read yours, or yours got reported, so sad for you but you're on the radar.

If you see examples of other members guilty of the very same actions, but left unchecked, why not copy and paste the links or quotes and give specific examples of that rather than assume it's a mod picking and choosing which rules to enforce, and which members to moderate?

[Andara Bledin]

To which I reply, which is more important, the spirit or the letter? Or the letter of the law? Cuz I can argue for both.

A forum is a community run at the whim of the owner, whose rules are enforced by the people they have chosen to be moderators.

Your statement shows that you fully understand the intent of the rule that was in place and chose to show the entire community that you have no respect at all for either owner or moderators or the community itself by doing something that goes directly against those intentions because the rules were written to be read by a community and not by lawyers.

Honestly, the way you make that statement makes you sound anti-social at best.

^-.-^

[Dips]

I just don't consider "bucking" authority to be that bad. It's one of those things you just have to deal with if you want to be in power. You left a loophole, I took advantage of it. Get over it.

Interesting, given how you don't seem to care much for it when someone bucks your authority:

http://www.fratching.com/showthread.php?t=4799

Maybe it's better to stop fighting battles over stupid things like putting on shoe or being able to swear. You can end up losing out on things you enjoy.

The fact that you're so angry about this tells me the consequences of your choices probably weren't worth it to you.

This is just a guess, mind you. I certainly don't have enough details to be certain.

[Amanita]

I remember seeing some pretty racy examples of ancient roman graffiti around the ruins of pompeii..some of which might make a trucker blush.

As for the example of using the actual curse word "Fuck" for example, and trying to get around the swear filter/prohibition by typing F***, F**K, or some other variation, one board I'm on has that covered. The rules state that both versions- the full word, and the starred-out version are not allowed. And using dashes instead of stars to get around the rules doesn't fly either.

[Nyoibo]

And you know this for a fact?

What are some examples of swear words that were used in ancient times?

Are they recorded for posterity somewhere?

Seriously, I am very curious.

I'll see if I can find the article I was read, it was a while ago but it was a very interesting read.


(And may I point out they didn't walk on the moon either. )[/QUOTE]

That we know of, but they had pictures of spacemen.

[DrFaroohk]

If you know that the action you are taking is against the spirit of the rules you have agreed to abide by, you're not only not "bucking authority," you're showing yourself to lack honor and have questionable morals.

To which I reply, which is more important, the spirit or the letter? Or the letter of the law? Cuz I can argue for both. If you're going to say the spirit, then great, I have a whole list of shit I'm going to throw back at you that are in the spirit of the law but not the letter. And vice versa.

Now...

People who split hairs and whine, "It didn't specifically say that in the rules.

It's not always that simple. Sure, the rules might say "No swearing". to the obvious observer, that means no swearing at all. Fine, I can live with that.

But wait, Avatar1982 just said goddammit! Isn't that a swear? oh, but his post didn't get deleted and I don't see an infraction on his profile, so I guess it's ok to say goddammit.

So then I say goddammit, because the mods made it clear that it's ok to say goddammit.

Then I see that Rising_Star_4_U@gmail.com has just said "ni&&er". WEll that's prettyy obvious what she said, and yet, no mod deleted or edited it, and she has no infractions on her profile. Therefore, mods have made it clear that it's ok to say ni&&er.

So yeah, I go with the flow of what I see. It's the authoritative body's job to keep these things consistent. Being in power doesn't mean "Oh yay I get to make all the rules and be Lord unto this domain!" It means you have a lot of shit to do. You have to be fair, you have to be consistent, a nd you have to follow your own rules.

When you allow one thing, you're allowing it for everyone. you can't pick and choose like that. If you let me say nigger, you have to let everyone. You can't let jackfaire say bullshit but ban me for saying bullshit.

To clarify, it's none of the mods here that did it.

[Ree]

Question what if the person uses cartoon swearing would that violate the spirit of the rules?

The comics code often prevented swearing so artists would have the character say ie Donald, "%*^&%$"

I would see the all symbols thing as fine because they represent the anger that would cause swearing, but not actual swearing. The symbols could mean any word. It's a sign that the person wants to use swearing but is self censoring out of good taste.

In the examples that DrFaroohk used in his OP, enough of the word is left in that it's pretty obvious what is being said, so all the symbols really do is make it slightly more work or family safe and get past the swear filters.

[jackfaire]

What are some examples of swear words that were used in ancient times?

I do not bite my thumb at thee sir but I do bite my thumb

Question what if the person uses cartoon swearing would that violate the spirit of the rules?

The comics code often prevented swearing so artists would have the character say ie Donald, "%*^&%$"

Wow Donald seriously language man there are children reading your comic.

[Ree]

Balls, earlier, great civilisations used profanity freely and frequently

And you know this for a fact?

What are some examples of swear words that were used in ancient times?

Are they recorded for posterity somewhere?

Seriously, I am very curious.

(And may I point out they didn't walk on the moon either. )

Another point from the OP that I noticed, and it's something that really peeves me off as a mod.

So unless you're going to specifically say so in your forum rules, which you are responsible for creating, words like $hit, c*nt, fu*kwad, a#%hole, p@ssy or c%$#^ucker will never, ever be obscene or swear words and should not be bannable offenses.

People who split hairs and whine, "It didn't specifically say that in the rules."



I get so damned tired of people who feel the rules are open to interpretation.

The rules say, for example, "No swearing."
A member posts a word that can be seen as profanity.
Mod does the usual wrist slap, citing the "No profanity" rule.
Member says, "But you weren't specific. I don't feel this was a swear word. It doesn't say in the rules that we can't use that word."

Next time, the member posts and uses a combination of letters and symbols instead of the actual word, but there is enough of the word present to get the meaning.
They were warned before about using the word, so the mod comes back with the wrist slap again.
Member comes back with, "But I didn't actually swear. I blacked out the word with symbols."
I'm sorry, but it was obvious from what was posted that the member was using the very same word they were asked not to use.
It goes back and forth with the member holding the line that it didnt state that specific word in the rules.
Member ends up banned because of a lousy attitude and then whines again that the mods are idiots because they banned for something that wasn't even mentioned in the rules.

How freakin long do rules have to be in order for someone to not fight it and say, "It's not in the rules."???
Does every instance of every swear word have to be listed?
Does every racial epithet have to be specifically listed?
Does every potentially problematic situation have to be listed so a member knows which topics to avoid?
Is it not enough to say, "Keep religion and politics off the board"?
Do the rules have to list examples of what is considered a political or religious topic?

Where does a mod have to draw a line and allow a member to actually think on their own and behave accordingly without having their hand held?

[Nyoibo]

Ah, but a race intelligent enough to walk on the moon should be able to interact without resorting to profanity.

Balls, earlier, great civilisations used profanity freely and frequently, the Romans, the Greeks, it's only been recently with this puritanical mindset that the general use of profanity has waned and come to be considered "low"

[Hyena Dandy]

I tend to take the speech patterns of whatever/whoever I last read/talked to. This means I'll use swearing for emphasis if that's the company I'm in, or not at all if that's the company I'm in.

I'll also swear if I've dropped something on my foot or whatever. I suspect this is because I react to any unexpected touch with 'ow', and I have to convey the pain in another way.

Sometimes I swear if I've experienced an unexpected setback/minor crisis, but that usually also depends on the company I'm in. If the company is less inclined to swear, I'll use 'oh monkeys', 'curses', or 'dagnabbit' instead.

I had a teacher once who used 'puppies!' as a catch-all swear.

[Amanita]

I think there's a difference between using the occasional curse word and saying "fuck" every second word, or cussing nonstop, Ree.

The ones I accuse of snobbery are the ones who refuse to see any kind of difference, and consider themselves superior to anyone who swears any time, for any reason.