Autocensor

[Valka D'Ur]

If you decide to turn your demo into your own forum, let me know.

Why, would you be interested in one dedicated to lolcats and fanfiction? If I were to start a forum of my own, it would include those two things, and some sort of alternative to NaNoWriMo (which basically imploded over a year ago; long story that would be very off-topic here).

My current interest is in learning how XenForo works. It's true that I can sit here and say it should be able to do what InvisionFree could do 20 years ago. But unless I'm actually a real forum owner/admin, I don't think I'm actually allowed to post in the support forum and ask questions. I did look that up awhile ago.

 

[The_J]

Is there a time limit to try this?

The demo is always available. A newly created instance is only available via the direct link and will expire after 1 week.
But TBH you need maybe 30 min to check out the autocensor settings.

My current interest is in learning how XenForo works. It's true that I can sit here and say it should be able to do what InvisionFree could do 20 years ago. But unless I'm actually a real forum owner/admin, I don't think I'm actually allowed to post in the support forum and ask questions. I did look that up awhile ago.

That is correct, but the autocensor settings are really not that complicated .

 

[MysticWind]

Just turn off the stupid autocensor. Can't even write out a surname.

Is this forum for children? Are there no mods to police foul conduct? Why are we relying on a limited piece of software? And the filter is just juvenile, infuriatingly infantile.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Are there no mods to police foul conduct?

Moderator Action: Our mods are all volunteers, we are busy enough without having to police language and yes this is a family friendly site.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Wow. @Noble Zarkon, that wasn't even slightly tone-deaf, was it?

I followed the link to see what name can't be typed out. It's a JAPANESE SURNAME. There is NOTHING about it that isn't "family friendly." Prohibiting that makes about as much sense as years ago when we couldn't mention chinks in log cabins or armor, or pussy willows or even the old "Pussy Cat" nursery rhyme about the cat who went to London to visit the Queen.

Snarking about the staff being volunteers and not having the time is amusing to me. During my time on staff I was expected to hand out inappropriate language infractions to anyone who committed them, and there were definitely some of them that were so very unnecessary that in my PM message to them, I'd apologize for the ridiculousness of having to card them for such a mild word, but it was part of my job.

Nobody is asking for unlimited permission to use the "f-word" or the "c-word" or the "n-word" or the "s-word". But acronyms should be allowed, and for my goodness gracious sakes (however that silly expression goes) with a side of clutching my grandmother's pearl necklace, let people type proper nouns.

I repeat: I managed to deal with this issue 20 years ago on InvisionFree forums that didn't have a fraction of the bells and whistles that a modern XenForo forum does. None of my forums imploded, and we managed to let proper nouns or other innocent words be used that contained the string of letters that by themselves are problematic but in a longer word are entirely innocent.

Here's my suggestion: If you don't have enough staff to deal with this, ask for a volunteer to be put on "swear-word detail" so people can post completely innocent proper nouns. All of this "horse-hockey" stuff makes the forum look really childish, not to mention ridiculous.

 

[MysticWind]

How is answering a question a Moderator Action lol

 

[The_J]

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the forum software isn't perfect.
It happens once in a while that something legit gets censored, and TBH, the right reaction to this should be "dumb software lol", and to move on .

 

[MysticWind]

I’m flying into a rage over undeserved censorship and will kick up a fuss every time this happens

 

[The_J]

That sounds unhealthy, but you do you!

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Is it just not possible to set it to NOT horsehokey occurrences in the middle of words?

I was able to figure out how to do that on much cruder software a decade ago...

...

(We couldn't mention Walter Koenig for a good while w/o embarrassing ourselves. This is Not a limitation Star Trek fans labored under gladly. Fortunately, if the forum's looking for a space after the problematic letter sequence, the problem goes away. I never had a problem with circumvention.)

 

[The_J]

We're considering this right now.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

In fact, I posted an easy circumvention for Anything On The Swear List -istr it works here, too, if you want to go to the trouble- in a sub only members of the Writers' Group could see, along with some guidelines about what was okay and what to consult me on - and a promise of Old Testament Wrath falling on the head of anyone who used it outside the Writers' Forum or otherwise abused it.

-Again, I never had to moderate any abuse of the trick.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, there's also a way to "panache" it,
For where one running back might just smash it,
Certain craftier chaps
Might just notice that gaps
Let them foil the defense if they slash it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Oh, fuddle-duddle...

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the forum software isn't perfect.
It happens once in a while that something legit gets censored, and TBH, the right reaction to this should be "dumb software lol", and to move on .

Am I the only one who bothered to follow that link to see what surname can't be mentioned? It leads to a perfectly respectable Wikipedia page and an interesting article about a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the Panasonic company. It's absolutely beyond reason that someone shouldn't be able to type that individual's proper name when mentioning or discussing him.

There is absolutely nothing about the article that is not family-friendly.

So no, the right reaction to this should be "the software is dumb; therefore we are going to find a workaround or just remove this particular string of letters from the autocensor and expend a bit of extra time when someone uses it inappropriately."

Suggestion: Put a higher point value on the infraction to discourage people from using it inappropriately. And I say this as someone whose language has admittedly become a lot more emphatic over the years because there are a lot more stupid or vile things I have no patience for and I've run out of polite ways to describe them.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Am I the only one who bothered to follow that link to see what surname can't be mentioned?

It was an obfuscated link which could have led anywhere, nothing to do with being "bothered".

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It was an obfuscated link which could have led anywhere, nothing to do with being "bothered".

The reason it was "obfuscated" is because he wasn't allowed to post the real one. It didn't lead anywhere harmful, there was nothing obscene about it, and the article was interesting. YIL. So yes, it has everything to do with being "bothered."

Y'know, part of being a mod on a forum (any forum) is solving problems, which sometimes requires investigation. You didn't do that. But you're welcome for being informed as to where that "dangerous" and "family-unfriendly" ( ) link leads.

 

[leif erikson]

Have made some adjustments to the autocensor. We shall see how it goes.
Some words will still probably show as ****, can try other techniques as needed, so please post further issues and we shall see if we can help the situation.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I wonder if I can say Kushite now...

Well that's nice.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Have made some adjustments to the autocensor. We shall see how it goes.
Some words will still probably show as ****, can try other techniques as needed, so please post further issues and we shall see if we can help the situation.

Thank you, leif.

 

[Akka]

But at least for me it makes reading stuff more entertaining cringe

Fix'd.

The censoring has always been eye-roll worhty. I routinely use common words at work with my managers that would get censored and get me a warning here.