Random cuss word question

[GranTurNismo]

The GTP AUP states that "you will not use profanity in the forums", though the words "Bitch", "Dick", "Ass/Asshole", "Whore", among many others, are completely fair game, yet the F, SH, and C word are banned via the swear filter? Obviously a cuss word ban is beneficial to the forums, but I'm genuinely curious why certain cuss words are allowed while others are not.

 

[Jordan]

I'm not sure I can give you a satisfactory answer to your question as it's not something I gave much thought when creating the profanity filter. I can't give you a reason some words are banned and others are not without getting into a larger discussion around language and culture.

GTPlanet's rules are derived from my personal ethics and morality, and I have always considered swear words to be on a spectrum. Some are simply "worse" than others, and the line had to be drawn somewhere. I know that spectrum is vastly different for different people and cultures (I thought I knew people who sweared a lot... until I went to the UK), but the rules are based around my reference point.

Context is obviously very important, too. Just because some "profane" words are allowed doesn't mean you can necessarily use them without abandon. For example, you could say something like "they called her a bitch" in any situation without any objection from the staff, but if you told someone "you're acting like a bitch" in the middle of a heated exchange, you just turned up the heat and we are more likely to step in.

 

[Famine]

The GTP AUP states that "you will not use profanity in the forums", though the words "Bitch", "Dick", "Ass/Asshole", "Whore", among many others, are completely fair game, yet the F, SH, and C word are banned via the swear filter? Obviously a cuss word ban is beneficial to the forums, but I'm genuinely curious why certain cuss words are allowed while others are not.

"Whore" is a "cuss word"? Weird.

In addition to what @Jordan notes above, the boundary here is pretty close to what PG/E10+ are supposed to be.

As a point of particular interest, every non-censored word I can think of off-hand has a valid use as something other than a term of abuse or profanity, where none of the ones that are censored do. Bitch is a girl dog, ass is a type of donkey, dick is a detective (and a dessert, and a human name). It can be tricky to hold a conversation with valid words if Dick Turpin stealing an ass with his best bitch Bessie by his side becomes an array of asterisks - and creates the impression of profanity where there wasn't any.

That also applies to other terms that we don't censor but which we also don't allow you to aim at other users as abuse. "Fag" is a cigarette or a servant, and "faggot" is a meatball made of offal or a bundle of things (usually sticks, but also metal rods). Bastard can mean an illegitimate child but also a bunch of really niche and archaic things - a bastard sword is a "hand and a half" sword (a sword balanced to require only one hand, but with a grip large enough for two allowing for better control), and a bastard wing is a clutch of feathers on a falcon broadly equivalent to a thumb.

Use any of those to describe another user though, and there'll be... trouble.

 

[IfAndOr]

yet the F, SH, and C word are banned via the swear filter

I've seen Ferrari, Shelby and Chevrolet used many times.

 

[Jordan]

dick is…a dessert

Gross.

 

[TexRex]

A while back, I listed George Carlin's "seven words" and was very surprised to see a certain one of them go uncensored. It was the one that, in the literal sense, is used for an individual who engages in a very specific sexual act not with their mother, and I suspect it wasn't censored because it's a compound of two permissible-in-appropriate-circumstances words. I just reported the post and staff censored it manually, which was obviously fine by me.

Gross.

Even worse, it's spotted.