Language: how clean or dirty?

[Jiggy]

No matter what, we're not allowing bigotry of any kind. Nobody can attack or slur any gender, race, sexual persuasion, faith or non-faith, political persuasion, hair color, eye color, nation of origin, nation of residence, marital status, age, or anything else people can come up with to hate. (Preferences and favoritism are not attacks.)

As for every other kind of profanity, how should we go about things? Total censorship, e.g. even words like "bastard" and "whore" are off-limits? Only the harshest terms banned? Something in between? All language open? All language open, but only in a specific subforum?



I'm up for a midway point, myself. I'm censoring a certain F word right now and I want civil discussion, but I don't want people to feel like they're walking on eggshells. If language clearly becomes a barrier to discourse and we end up with lots of one-liners, we can always change rules later.

[Hexjackal]

A middle ground seems best, especially for what you're going with for this forum--intelligent and mature discussion. At least I think that's what you're going for. If that's the case, then a middle ground is certainly best. Constant swears aren't exactly a sign of maturity and an ability to intelligently dispense thoughts. Not to mention that's exactly what you'd get by allowing the F and S word--constant swears.

BTW

I'm censoring a certain F word right now

WHICH ONE WOULD THAT BE

[Jiggy]

Well, I'd like the serious discussions to be actually serious, but I wouldn't mind at all if most of the threads ended up being total joyfests, braggery, and other things that certainly aren't intelligent and mature discssion--just as long as people weren't using those threads to trash each other.

Even more than creating the kinds of rules that would make an intelligent environment, I'd want to create the kinds of rules that would make for a friendly one.


But that's just me. My real question--and this goes for pretty much all of our topics of discussion in here (and even some topics we haven't posted because we're curious whether others will bring them up without being prompted)--is what we could do that most others don't. Yes, there are tens of thousands of Internet forums. Yes, every possible permutation of rules has probably been created before. Despite this, some kinds of posting environments must be more rare than others.



Clarifying this thread a little: :)

If we (the other admins and I) wanted to impose our own ideals, we'd just consult with each other for a few days, lay the rules down, and be done with it. We're not doing that, and it's because we're honestly interested in others' thoughts. We're three people. The audience will, hopefully, one day be hundreds and thousands. They're very important.

So forget, for a second, what it seems like I want or what I'm aiming toward... If you were creating a forum with nothing guiding you except the idea that its rules should be like nothing you've seen on any other forum you visit, what would you do?

[doomed1]

well, after screwing up and posting this language post in the sexuality thread, i'l just post it in the appropriate thread here:

you know, i think there should be absolutely no language or content rules that should be out of the question, only that things be marked NSFW for things like (artistic?) nudity, raunchy discussion, and other such items of questionable morality.

upon the question of cussing, it should go the way of GAF. i like to say shit, ****, bitch (as in son of a bitch, bitchy controls, AI, me getting bitched, etc.), ass, dickwad, etc, so on and so forth. sometimes because it fits my joke, and others because it expresses my frustration. the only time a mod should step in is when there's a malicious intent with the words being directed towards a specific person or group, and even that doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be swearing.

but then, I yam from Jersey afta ahl, eh? ;)

edit: ah well ****-ity **** ****-nuts, i can't say ****, can i? :P

[Prax]

I like f-word censoring.. but maybe because I think it's funny. XD

I wonder though.. what do you guys think of self-censoring like this: f* ?
What if i added a "ck" at the end? Would that look too obscene?

I think words like "bastard" or "whore' are context specific, but they should be accurate to the context (if a game character IS a bastard.. or actually happens to be a whore). I frown upon words like that being flung around on a person's whims for derogatory purposes (mainly because it's almost meaningless).

[Hive]

i don't give a fcuk what you guys type here.

the only person not mature enough to handle such rhetoric is Philip, and even he respects my "ginger fart-hole" comments. XD