Auto sanitisation now active, apparently

[craigprice]

Wow, just found out the site "cleans" up borderline language. Not an issue but it gets it very wrong in important cases.
Example - the colloquial aussie term that literally describes something covered in blood, i.e. "xxx-y" gets auto converted to "*&%$#!" by the site
I was trying to use this word in its correct manner to describe how to cook rare steak, and got "*&%$#!" instead

Now I'm gonna try to fin other words to see what triggers it - thanks for this new game !

[Son of a Beach]

It's a tricky issue to handle correctly for cases when the same word has both a legitimate use and profanity use.

Of course it is also very difficult to manage it in such a way that it suits the wide variety of opinions on what should be considered "family friendly" and what should not.

[ChrisJHC]

From the US Army’s General Orders (may be a bit dated by now )

General Orders

August 3, 1776

The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice hitherto little known in our American Army is growing into fashion. He hopes that the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it and that both they and the men will reflect that we can little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this it is a vice so mean and low without any temptation that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.

(Signed,) George Washington

[wander]

The auto censer is a pretty common thing across platforms. Most platforms being of US origin are very conservative to just weird with the banned words. On most the admin can fool about with it and release words, it depends on how important it is in the scheme of spending time / resources on tailoring a site.

On another site I use the members simply worked out work arounds such as $(^!*# to achieve their expression. Admin is pretty active their so a bunch of regular Oz words were released so to speak.

[wander]

hahaha the auto censer has a broad remit to pick up work arounds. Let's have another go. Blooody.

[Son of a Beach]

oh dear... the site rules states:

Attempts to bypass the word censor are not permitted.

[north-north-west]

While the censor is a default, you can change your personal settings so that the words in question appear as written.
Don't ask me how, it was so long ago that I've forgotten.

[craigprice]

This is all really amusing, Thankyou

[johnw]

While the censor is a default, you can change your personal settings so that the words in question appear as written.
Don't ask me how, it was so long ago that I've forgotten.

I think it may be:
User Control Panel
Board Preferences
Edit Display Options
Enable word censoring Yes/No
Select No

Mine was already set to No. I can't remember if I did it but I don't think I've noticed any auto corrections in my posts (may be wrong).
Or maybe I don't swear that often .

[wildwalks]

Thanks for this - they are good things to think about.
Craig - does sound like fun game, I suspect it will help me add more to the list through

I just had a look through the censor list (has been in place for many years BTW).
Most of the words I am very comfortable being filtered.
I know a lot of kids do use the site for DofE and scouts etc. I also know they already know the words, but that is not the point. Part of it is just helping keep things friendly.

but yes a few words are fine depending on the context

The way the system works is a pretty simple search and replace.
Eg if if the word "auto" was on the list it would get replaced.
but we can also do things like
auto* will replace automatic autocar but not auto car
*auto* will replace any word with auto anywhere in it.

so, in this case, we can say
blood
but not not add the y at the end.
*&%$#!

That seems over the top when you are referring to your socks after a leach attach
but there are other contexts where it is more offensive.

We can't white-list phrases, sadly.
Maybe one day, when I have more time and money, we can use AI and do sentiment analysis and deal with it that way, but not this week

I just don't think it is worth the time to try to come up with a list of phrases rather than just the word, but if someone thinks they can do that, I would be happy to try it.