Discussion Can we stop kidding ourselves and allow swearing in the tech forums?

[GodisanAtheist]

I'm pretty sure the average age on these forums is pushing 90.

No kids are stumbling across AT, they're all on Twitch and Discord or calling your mom a cock sucking whore on Roblox.

Just let it go and allow swearing on the tech forums already.

Edit: Gaming Forum as well for that matter.

 

[mindless1]

Seems better to me to not allow swearing but if it happens to have been done for a legit reason (or rare intoxicated accident?) then let it slide.

When it's done to try to offend someone, it has no useful purpose and is a slippery slope. We really don't need 90 year olds acting like 10 year old trolls. If someone can't construct a sentence with a more appropriate phrase, it's probably something they shouldn't be writing in the first place.

At the same time it doesn't seem like something that should carry a stiff penalty, unless there's an excessive # of repeat offenses but with each additional repeat offense and warning, that's extra work for mods.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's so this site, or at least the tech half of them, don't get censored or blocked by "NetNanny" programs, or worse OpenDNS. Meaning, that rule has to stay if AT tech forums are to stay accessable to all humans.

 

[WelshBloke]

Seems better to me to not allow swearing but if it happens to have been done for a legit reason (or rare intoxicated accident?) then let it slide.

When it's done to try to offend someone, it has no useful purpose and is a slippery slope. We really don't need 90 year olds acting like 10 year old trolls. If someone can't construct a sentence with a more appropriate phrase, it's probably something they shouldn't be writing in the first place.

At the same time it doesn't seem like something that should carry a stiff penalty, unless there's an excessive # of repeat offenses but with each additional repeat offense and warning, that's extra work for mods.

We don't really have a stiff penalty for swearing in the wrong forums!

When I've (accidentally) sworn in the wrong place it just gets edited out, I get a mod message, I apologize and we all move on. It's not like they pull the ban hammer out on your first swear!

 

[A///]

I've had to edit posts so many times to remove swearing because it was in the main forums.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

It's so this site, or at least the tech half of them, don't get censored or blocked by "NetNanny" programs, or worse OpenDNS. Meaning, that rule has to stay if AT tech forums are to stay accessable to all humans.

- There is no way OpenDNS is gonna care about the occasional shit or fuck on some rando no name forum.

If someone says something really vile or beyond the pale, they absolutely need to be moderated, but just your garden variety swearing shouldnt draw a card.

 

[mindless1]

^ The internet sets several different standards for what is really vile, depending on how much the particular forum allows.

I prefer the standard of what would be offputting if stated in real life, around educated people opposed to low lifes. There's already plenty of punks on AT that would get their arses handed to them, if stating what they post here, in real life to a person standing in front of them, without even having to use especially vile/curse words which tend to only be more inflammatory.

 

[Iron Woode]

I'm pretty sure the average age on these forums is pushing 90.

No kids are stumbling across AT, they're all on Twitch and Discord or calling your mom a cock sucking whore on Roblox.

Just let it go and allow swearing on the tech forums already.

Edit: Gaming Forum as well for that matter.

Not going to happen.

The rule is there to maintain decorum and allow serious answers to questions asked. Swearing is rude and unprofessional.

- Iron Woode
Super Moderator

 

[Jimminy]

Not going to happen.

The rule is there to maintain decorum and allow serious answers to questions asked. Swearing is rude and unprofessional.

- Iron Woode
Super Moderator

Amen. If this sort of blasphemy were allowed, Anand would be banned in all Red states, and gawd himself would cry. 🙂

Seriously, cussing isn't needed in most technical discussions normally. It usually only occurs at the explosive end to some of them.