Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2013, 06:21:58 PM

Title: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 30, 2013, 06:21:58 PM
Mylochka had a cute idea last week - temporarily change the way the swear filter alters forbidden terminology to something ever funnier - her first idea was for made-up cuss terms from popular SF, thus all Frack and Frell and Kark.  Nobody's ever come up with an extensive vocabulary of fake profanity in any one work, so I'd need a lot of help coming up with translations for even the handful of naughty RL terms people actually use here.  Fortunately (perhaps) this is the sort of idiotic thing the internet is good for...

Her other idea is turn swearing to pirate talk.  I'd need less help for that, but it really ought to happen the week or month of Talk Like a Pirate Day, and wasn't that in the spring?



Some general remarks on my reservations and member behavior it would take to make this a good experience for me and everyone:

This is way too much work for me.  If I touch so much as an apostrophe on any part of the list, I just committed to nearly an hour's work, or no one will be able to use the word night and lots of others.  Every single item is in a separate field, and separate for the translation of each, so there's no good workaround, and I'd guess there are around 500+ entries.  Not only does the filter work very poorly, doing anything with/to it is a nightmare.  -Otherwise, you'd have found "AARRG" in your posts a week ago.

If we do this, everyone will be trying to trigger the filter constantly.  Fine, I guess, but I have to require that everyone doing so preview any post to make sure the filter caught the bad word.  If I find myself having to edit a lot of posts, I'm going to just dive back into the filter and undo on the spot instead of later.  The filter tends to not catch words ending sentences, or punctuated with a comma, for stupid reasons, so sometimes if you add a space at the end, and re-preview, it will fix - also, check your spelling; it's not possible to think of every work-around, though the list sisko worked from really tried.

Finally, just because of the topic I must ask that you don't take this as license to make with offensive language in discussing the possibilities and offering fake SF swears.  Thank you, and please have fun with this.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Green1 on August 31, 2013, 03:30:21 AM
The goons over at Something Awful forums have the funniest swear filter ever.

Not that I have any love for goons. I was traumatized in gaming by masses of goons many years ago :D

Either that or the Russians. But, come to think of it, I wish I could have joined the Russians.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 03:49:17 AM
Russians are tough.

Having the filter translate swearing into Russian swearing is probably not doable, and it's definitely a bad idea, isn't it?
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: JarlWolf on August 31, 2013, 06:06:27 AM
As a resident Russian/Russian speaker, I personally wouldn't mind, but I think that this is an international forum, if we are "translating swears" over to something its best to keep it not tied to an actual languages real swears. You'll avoid problems that way.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 31, 2013, 06:33:03 AM
Well, you could go with the shakespearian  approach...

Clay-headed and Shag-eared though it may be.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 01:07:07 PM
Ooh!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Mylochka on August 31, 2013, 02:17:26 PM
lots to work with there -- from whoreson knaves to making the beast with two backs...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on August 31, 2013, 02:30:36 PM
Her other idea is turn swearing to pirate talk.  I'd need less help for that, but it really ought to happen the week or month of Talk Like a Pirate Day, and wasn't that in the spring?

Waning days of Summer. September 19th, each year.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 02:36:02 PM
We've got our work cut out for us then, don't we?
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on August 31, 2013, 04:36:53 PM
We've got our work cut out for us then, don't we?

You have, yes.  :D
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 04:55:50 PM
Siigh.  Yes.

Nobody's actually said they liked this idea, and that's essential feedback I need to get motivated to do the work - and start posting fake SF swears.  I will ask if I don't get the meaning. -Best to attribute the SF work derived from, to keep down confusion.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 31, 2013, 05:48:10 PM
Well, the Science fiction approach strikes me as most appropriate for this forum. The trouble is aside from Larry Niven's  TANJ! (There Ain't No Justice ) I have nothing further to contribute.  What's the Star War's version? "I've got a bad feeling about this..."?

Pirates are a little more fertile subject matter, although the authentic language might be particularly harsher than what we normally use to curse with. I understand it's purpose was to threaten & intimidate people into surrendering without a fight. Pirates were real bad-buttocked persons of uncertain ancestery.

 Anyway, I think it's an interesting idea . I'll try to  keep this thread afloat, and hopefully more people will join in.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 06:36:29 PM
Good call on TANJ.  Asimov had a character, Dr. Ebling Mis IIRC, use "censored" as a swear, which obviously won't work for this.  In The Gripping Hand, "rape my lizard" was some sort of expression of surprise, but I don't think that one passes the smell-test.

Pirates were real bad-buttocked persons of uncertain ancestery.
;lol
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 06:41:08 PM
Oh - definitely we can use "Shazbot" from Mork and Mindy.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 31, 2013, 07:22:41 PM
I watched the show, but don't recall much of it.

Shazbot sounds like a great word!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on August 31, 2013, 07:46:53 PM
What's the Star War's version? "I've got a bad feeling about this..."?

"I find your lack of faith disturbing..."
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 31, 2013, 08:19:13 PM
What's the Star War's version? "I've got a bad feeling about this..."?

"I find your lack of faith disturbing..."

;leia   ;lol
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on August 31, 2013, 09:27:52 PM
Mylochka had a cute idea last week - temporarily change the way the swear filter alters forbidden terminology to something ever funnier - her first idea was for made-up cuss terms from popular SF, thus all Frack and Frell and Kark.  Nobody's ever come up with an extensive vocabulary of fake profanity in any one work, so I'd need a lot of help coming up with translations for even the handful of naughty RL terms people actually use here.  Fortunately (perhaps) this is the sort of idiotic thing the internet is good for...
I use "frack" in my offline life. Not only am I old enough to have watched and enjoyed the original Battlestar Galactica (felgercarb and all ;)), but the word "frack" is a RL word used when talking about the abominable practice of oil companies forcing potable water into the ground to get at reserves more cheaply than using other methods. Fracking ruins the environment, can cause earthquakes in areas that never had them before, and has rendered usable farmland totally useless. I feel so strongly about this that I cancelled my Reader's Digest subscription because they accepted advertising from Cenovus (a company that not only engages in fracking, but brags about it in TV and print ads like destroying productive farmland is a good thing).

A Canadian swear expression is "fuddle-duddle." Many years ago, then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau muttered a word in Question Period that started with "f". The microphones didn't pick it up clearly, but it was evident to the people around him what he'd said. He told the press that he'd actually said "fuddle-duddle."

If I say "cow pies" (especially in all-caps, with one or more exclamation points behind it), it should be obvious what I really mean.

The problem with designating swear words on an international forum is that a swear word/expression in one country may be a completely innocent word/expression in another. On some American forums, the lyrics to "Pack Up Your Troubles" can't be posted in their entirety; the profanity filter will be tripped. The spelling might be the same, but the meaning is completely different.

Something that happened on a gaming forum I belonged to many years ago messed up a writing competition I was running (I was a moderator there in the writing forum). We had a short story contest going, and one of the contestants had used the word "crap." Well, to me that's not such a bad word; we all know what it means, and it's not as bad as most of the alternates. But somebody among the admins decided to change the coding for that word... and put in the same code as was used for one of the forum smileys.

That smiley happened to be a spinning green skull. So the author wrote his story (not knowing about the filter change), PM'd it to me to post for him, and I discovered that one of his sentences had a spinning green skull in the middle of it. I checked the original version of the story and immediately realized it was a filtering problem. So I asked the admins to please not filter that word. The argument I used was simply that I was probably the most easily-offended member of the forum, and if a mild expletive didn't bother me, why should it bother anyone else? Not to mention it was disrespectful to the contest entrant to have written a serious story and had this ridiculous smiley in the middle of one of his sentences...

There are several common "censored" smileys available, and I made a custom one for one of my forums (an annoyed smiley sticking its tongue out, holding a sign that says *swear word*).
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 09:42:09 PM
On some American forums, the lyrics to "Pack Up Your Troubles" can't be posted in their entirety; the profanity filter will be tripped. The spelling might be the same, but the meaning is completely different.
I googled it, and this is one of those forums. alas, though pretty thoroughly international.  A slur is a slur, and we take slurs more seriously than traditional forms of cussin'. 

Should I consider spiking that one in case someone wants to use the Commonwealth form to refer to tiredness or cigarettes, and just deal with the slur manually if needed?  (I do not love putting up with anything just three letters being in the filter -they cause way too many problems when the same sequence is part of an okay word- so I could easily be talked into it...)
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on August 31, 2013, 10:02:44 PM
deleted


The lyrics seem innocent?
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on August 31, 2013, 10:15:05 PM
On some American forums, the lyrics to "Pack Up Your Troubles" can't be posted in their entirety; the profanity filter will be tripped. The spelling might be the same, but the meaning is completely different.
I googled it, and this is one of those forums. alas, though pretty thoroughly international.  A slur is a slur, and we take slurs more seriously than traditional forms of cussin'. 

Should I consider spiking that one in case someone wants to use the Commonwealth form to refer to tiredness or cigarettes, and just deal with the slur manually if needed?  (I do not love putting up with anything just three letters being in the filter -they cause way too many problems when the same sequence is part of an okay word- so I could easily be talked into it...)
It's not a big deal for me. :) I just used it as an example. The reverse is also true: some words that are harmless when used in Canada will result in raised eyebrows and disapproval from British people (Plotinus and I ran into that a couple of times on CFC; I'm Canadian and he's British).

@Geo: Yes, the words are innocent. The problem is that a British slang word that means "cigarette" and an American slang term that means something sexual (in a derogatory way) are spelled the same.

Since that song is from WWI not many people are familiar with it, so they miss the original context.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 31, 2013, 10:21:59 PM
And of course this is something that artificial intelligence is not intelligent enough about.  The word is fine; as a slur is not - the filter can't handle the difference.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Green1 on September 01, 2013, 02:17:45 AM
Just out of curiosity, what is the list? How many words are we talking here?
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 02:28:19 AM
I've never counted, it is so many that I'm not interested in counting, and I estimate around 500 or more entries.  The majority is ethnic/sexual slurs and a lot of everything is attempts to anticipate workarounds.   -You know, w0rkar0unds.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Green1 on September 01, 2013, 02:44:17 AM
I've never counted, it is so many that I'm not interested in counting, and I estimate around 500 or more entries.  The majority is ethnic/sexual slurs and a lot of everything is attempts to anticipate workarounds.   -You know, w0rkar0unds.

So it is like a dictionary instead of a short list. I was just wondering so as to be able to come up with creative things.

I do think we should either leave as is or go sci fi since we are a sci fi type board.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 02:50:03 AM
It is like a slice of [heck] is what it is.  An individual field for each term. and another for each translation.  If it was lists, it would be easy.  Nothing about it is easy.  It is living through a Clive Barker novel.  It is evil that laughs at Sith for the ineffectual sweetheart posers they are.


Start posting frell and shazbot, then.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 06:19:40 AM
This is what we use on my Doctor Who forum (a most refined place where we worship Tom Baker).
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 06:25:35 AM
There HAD to be an episode where the (Baker #1!) Doctor was gagged...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 06:42:16 AM
There were a few where he was tied up (most immediate one that comes to mind is The Power of Kroll).
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 06:48:49 AM
KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 07:14:49 AM
It's scary, how much I remember of this ridiculous story. The Doctor, Romana, and Romm Dutt were tied to some kind of torture rack, and the Doctor got them free by singing a weirdly-pitched note. The sound broke the window, letting enough rain in to make the ropes slacken so they could get free of the rack before their bodies were ripped apart.

The special effects were terrible in that story.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 07:39:33 AM
But! But! But!  It had

KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!



-And there was something stupidly awesome about KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!  :danc:  KROLL!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 07:57:05 AM
Are you currently doing a weird dance and shaking a spear right about now?  :P
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 08:32:52 AM
[blinks] While painted green?  Why would I do that?
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 08:36:54 AM
You are currently painted green?
Way to go, Mylochka!  ;b;
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 08:51:06 AM
You should see the Frida Kahlo reproduction she painted on the wall of the garage.  My entire family is gifted.


People, OT till the tubes break in half, but humor me and throw in some SF naughty words.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 09:01:17 AM
FLAPDOODLE!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 09:04:56 AM
What's that from?



I wasn't making the Frida Kahlo reproduction up...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 09:25:13 AM
FLAPDOODLE!

Nice font.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 09:27:06 AM
People, OT till the tubes break in half, but humor me and throw in some SF naughty words.


*sigh* (http://scifi.about.com/od/starwarsglossaryandfaq/a/SWAR_curses-and-expletives.htm)
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 09:31:49 AM
Hey.  I am in a mood, and that [poop]don't wash tonight.  Make with the space cussin' and no 'tude.

Edit: okay, that was helpful, but the sigh is still resented.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 10:29:51 AM
Edit: okay, that was helpful, but the sigh is still resented.

Well, I just gave you the means to curse me.  :P
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 10:31:16 AM
;lol
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 06:16:06 PM
BUncle, you are a Tom Baker kind of Doctor Who fan, and you don't know the word "flapdoodle"?  :o

The Fourth Doctor uttered it when he was upset with someone - I don't remember who it was, or which story (I think it was one with Romana II), but the meaning was basically something like "BS kind of nonsense".
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 01, 2013, 06:17:05 PM
FLAPDOODLE!

Nice font.
Thank you. BUncle asked me to swear SF-style, so I wanted to do it right.  :P
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 07:28:14 PM
It HAS been a 30 years for some of them...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Mylochka on September 01, 2013, 07:40:54 PM
You are currently painted green?
Way to go, Mylochka!  ;b;

Buncle does sleep occasionally...  Kroll! :danc: Kroll!  :danc: Kroll! :danc:
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 07:44:03 PM
KROLL!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Mylochka on September 01, 2013, 08:03:21 PM
There's "frell" and "dren" from Farscape, "frak" from Babylon 5...

Do the Smurfs count as Science Fiction?  If so, then you've smurfin' got all your smurf smurfed, ya smurf-smurfer!
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 08:05:04 PM
Dren
Frell
Hezmata
Mivonks
Trel'ik
Yotz
eema

Funny that. We were just busy with the same universe.  :P
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 08:07:08 PM
Are those all for the same show, Geo, and what, roughly do they mean?  I really miss Farscape, but it's been too long.

I dunno; Smurfing talk may be a theme of its own...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Geo on September 01, 2013, 08:11:49 PM
Get your frelling eema over there, or else I have to assume you don't have any mivonks. (http://www.youswear.com/index.asp?language=Farscape#.UiORRH8a4aM)
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Mylochka on September 01, 2013, 08:14:43 PM
Does "vulcan" count?  As in, "Spock, are you out of your Vulcan mind?"  ;spock
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 01, 2013, 08:15:27 PM
Oooh!  Good one.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: JarlWolf on September 02, 2013, 07:31:01 AM
We should have the swear filter correlate with SMAC/X.

I am thinking for Sh*t, we replace it with:
Drone Riots

For As*h*le, we replace it with:
Organic Superlubricant

And for F*ck, we replace it with:
Population Boom

Just a thought, may be better ideas on it or better ideas for SMAC/X related replacements.

Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 02, 2013, 01:43:39 PM
It needs a lot more details, but I think you got something there ([poop] would be [recycling tanks], though).  If people like it, something like that could even be permanent. 


For As*h*le, we replace it with:
Organic Superlubricant
This gives away too much information about you, I think.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 02, 2013, 08:21:50 PM
You are currently painted green?
Way to go, Mylochka!  ;b;
You should see the Frida Kahlo reproduction she painted on the wall of the garage.


FridaMural 0001 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9JFx0l7elE#)

The original:
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 09, 2013, 07:36:38 AM
You know --- an option I haven't mentioned would be to cut the censor out of the loop entirely and use the smilie function.  They work the same way, but one substitutes characters (asterisks, or the bracketed translations I entered, and the like) and the other substitutes little pics.  The biggest difference is that the smilies always work.  I could upload a smilie with the f-word as the smilie code.  I could make a little Lalla Ward Romanna appear any time someone says Valka, too, for that matter. 

Lots of possibilities, though I'd have to make the swear list real short to keep it manageable, and just deal directly with the rare occurrences of other bad words and slurs...
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Valka on September 09, 2013, 07:41:28 AM
You know --- an option I haven't mentioned would be to cut the censor out of the loop entirely and use the smilie function.  They work the same way, but one substitutes characters (asterisks, or the bracketed translations I entered, and the like) and the other substitutes little pics.  The biggest difference is that the smilies always work.  I could upload a smilie with the f-word as the smilie code.  I could make a little Lalla Ward Romanna appear any time someone says Valka, too, for that matter. 

Lots of possibilities, though I'd have to make the swear list real short to keep it manageable, and just deal directly with the rare occurrences of other bad words and slurs...
Just remember that it can have unintended consequences, like I mentioned with the writing competition I was running. It's not funny for someone to enter a serious story in a serious contest and have a dumb-looking smiley (or any smiley, for that matter) in the middle of a sentence. I raised a fuss about that because it would have hurt that contestant's chances - the competition and the voters would have used it as an excuse to unfairly criticize the story and downvote it.
Title: Re: Fun with the swear filter
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 09, 2013, 07:46:09 AM
That's a good point.  And also on that side, I discovered today that we could give users the option of turning off the swear filter for their own display.

I would have to stop leaving the occasional term in my posts for the filter to catch if we did that, but I'm seriously considering doing it...
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