Shall we burn a few books then? Being frightened of words seems particularly inappropriate for the information age.

UGhaibu:
I get the feeling they all know that you and I are not frightened of the words LOL
But, theres times and places I guess

Yes there are times and places.. there are some young children who play on this site.. they dont need to be seeing the words..
Yes they probably here them amongst friends and family... but here we should be showing them respect and not letting them see them..
This is a family site..

And thanks steve for the suggestion.. yes we will still know what the words are.. but at least it will look better untill it can be removed!

the biggest liar may never swear,and the most honest of people may talk like a sailor,
I see no reason for Fencer to pull himself away from playing games to appy a censor filter.What he needs to do is solve the many bugs that are occurring and remove the moderating team of the purple princess.

I was given none when accepting Stories. Except for LJ's opinion, how am I doing?

I think censorship is stupid, my kids are no worse for having heard or seen swear words. In fact I show them that they are silly words instead of words to be feared. They seem to be still able to play and laugh freely. Amazing.

I see little wrong with swear words, in and of themselves. It's the context of their use that can deem them profane or appropriate. I rarely use them while talking, and even less when writing. To me they're generally used by people that have feeble minds and say them because of a limited vocabulary. Especially those people that use them in every sentence. They just don't get it. The words completely lose any possible impact they might have and just become filler.
The best cussing and swearing that I've seen is the kind where not one swear word is used. It's become a lost art, but when you come up against someone that knows this kind of talking you can be amazed at the words that spew forth with nary a bad word amongst them.
I side with grenv on this. No filters, besides ain't that what the moderators are for?

As for moderators being too arbitrary and capricious, we do need a mechanism for helping their removal and replacement. If more than a few complain about a moderator as some of you have been doing on this board about the Music board, it certainly must take some looking into. You know that's right Fencer, or you wouldn't have installed me as moderator of the Gothic Chess board. You have the power to do it, but not the time or resources to police each board and still run this site.
Perhaps some sort of polling device, or a complaints registry. We all know if you do a good job, no one will say anything. But screw up just once, and they're on you like flies on fecal matter. This is certainly the case for baseball umpires! :) If they do a good job, you don't remember them. One bad call, and that's the main topic of discussion after the game most of the time.

The other thing is sharing the job, or letting others do it after you've served for awhile as moderator. As has been proven through the course of history, power is rarely ceded or given up freely. No matter how bad a leader is, it usually takes a very bad one before the masses will rise up to do something about it. Even something as inconsequential as being a moderator in an obscure message board of a game site seems to bring out the worst in a good percentage of people. They get a little power, and it goes right to their heads.

Suppose I want to moderate a board, and the current occupant doesn't want to step down or share it. What can I do? Are we in for life, or do newcomers have any rights? How do others complain when they think a moderator is overstepping their authority? They obviously need a public forum. Looks like posting to a different board trying to drum up support is their best option. That's why people have been posting here Fencer. Same thing as to the Gothic Chess board. CothicInventor's one major mistake, and obviously the people in the Music board haven't made it yet, was to make Fencer mad. Oops!

You created the other boards Fencer. Why, I don't know, but they're here. They have nothing to do with games, but people use them. Now the monster is getting a life of its own and will take over your site if you're not ever vigilant. Short of just deleting the non-game related boards, you're going to have to come up with a solution to this soon. Poll a few of the people that care about it, including the ones that people complain about and see if they have any ideas for you. I'd make it easy for a current modrator to advice people of a board that he wanted to step down. Such as a check box at the top of the page. As for someone the wants the job, or wants a new moderator but not themselves inhis place, you need to have a way to change them or atleast let the challenger compete for the job. Perhaps he shouldn't take over as the present person is doing a good job for the rest of the people of the board. I'm not going to suggest an election or something of the sort, but you can think of something. If any of the boards are really that important to someone, let him pay for the position. A challenger could outbid him for the job. Negative comments could also be factored in. Hey, a free market for moderators! :) Such a system could work for the people that get mad at a moderator. They could pool their money by all chipping in a few bucks each and buy it out from under him since it would cost too much for himself to maintain. Most of the boards will remain as they are. Forums for like minded people.

2¢

strong points,Walter,and I agree with everything,but the pay for it part.Moderators need to be unbiased,and cannot let personal feelings guide their judgement on moderation.This is exactly the case with princess purple moderation team.

Problem is, a guest sees all public boards, regardless of her/his age.
the visible image will become part of the general reward of a site.
Normal, that in general chat some loose lingo occurs and is tolerated ...
I don't think all public boards should be public for non-members, thus.
The game-specific boards though could be an attraction as first spot,
unless some obsessive idiots misuse it for cheating their reward. ~*~

nice summary by specialists, show your kids.
Go figure that the search for deminers might be blocked,
because slavery-supporter Ashcroft banned the word 'bomb' ~*~

traditional games - perhaps you know already ... ~*~

Shortly, no global filters will be done.
When I have some time, I can implement user-defined filters where each user can define a list of words he doesn't want to see. But I don't expect to do it soon because any run-time filters slow down other processes which is never best for BrainKing.

Cool :o)

overall,theres generally not alot of cussing on the public boards.There may be a few instances where someone has had a cocktail too many ;)
but to be moderators and use your board to delagate abuse,force people to your way of thinking or ban/moderate them...is dead wrong.

Well right now if a person uses bad language, it is up to each individual moderator on how to handle it. For example, i would probable just edit out the word. Some moderators will just delte the whole post, while others will ban/hide the user.

Again, it's basicly each moderator's board now - no global rules on how to handle things like that.

I also don't see a point in having a filter for language. It would be good if it would work, but it's too easy for someone to write b*tch when the meant to write butch. (grin)

But BBW
B*tch does say the same....But it does not look as offensive I think

Its great when the moderators are there on line... It would be great to have some of the boards covered 24/7... but we know that is just about impossible... but when neither/all moderator is there who can do anything??? no-one..
(Well fencer if he is here) (Or contact the individual)
Ok A lot of our children here the words in the street and in the home.. It doesn't mean they are going to start using them.. its not that they will turn into bad people if they do..

To me its a matter of respect...and its children/minors I am aiming at here more... If I swear in front of my children.. my fault, my problem.. but I certainly dont expect others to swear in front of them.. And we should respect that here.. Also there are different cultures here too.. and to some of them its a bad thing!! so again It comes down to respect...

Some /a lot of you probably dont agree with me....
But I HAVE RESPECT FOR CHILDREN! If we dont show them respect, they will never learn to have it themselves!

when it comes to kids and the internet.chatty,I dont think anyone is disagreeing with you.

chattytea: Why would it be impossible to make a 24/7 cover of public boards? The only thing we need is a sufficient number of reliable moderators around the world, that's all.

But unless you re-do how the Moderators work, you will never get 24/7 coverage. For example, the Purple/Princess boards - no one would be as "strict" as they are, so there would be no one else that could help watch those board.

Unless you make some "global" moderators who have access to edit out bad words & personal attacks on all public boards - possible with the rule that the "global" moderators mostly just edits and hides and lets the "regular" moderators choose if they want to ban or keep hidden the user. BUT AND I STRESS THIS MUCH - If you do have global moderators for the public boards, you HAVE to have someone who is fair to all - not like some current board moderators.

umm..hate to interrupt, but do you think you can program Alice Chess, Fencer? just a small request.

Fencer.. as much as some of us love being here.. you would need so many moderators for each board to have them covered all of the time.. and as has been said you would need a set of standards set and also have people who will be totally unbiased whetever is going on.. Are there that many people about who would be wiling to take on the task...

The music board is one example.. both moderators are in the same time zone.. so how can that be covered like that..
the general chat.. ok, 2 different time zones.. 2 moderators.. but neither are not always here either.. so its uncovered a lot of the time.. some of them only have one moderator.. so just cannot be covere al the time ..

I personally think it will be a hrd job to find people to do the moderating 24/7

Kammy lives in Central Zone and I live in Pacific. We cover it the best we can.

why does it need covering?

There is NO excuse for the use of bad words or personal attacks on the public boards. It does nothing but show the immaturity of the people doing it. Sure, we all get mad and aggrivated. I'm just saying...do it elsewhere!

There are private boards. Public ones are not the place. My opinion is that some of you either grow up and act like adults, or be banned completely and permanently from posting on the public boards. All this bickering and name calling on public boards is NOT beneficial for this site.

She will lift the restriction as soon as the there is a little more reduction in posts from people who are more interested in porn or starting trouble than they are in music. It has gotten much better and we hope and believe they may tire.

You may well live in different time zones and i realise you cover it as well as you both can do. I was using it as an example.. same as GC.. its not covered 24/7 because there are not enough people there..
The GC board has a moderator in the US and on in the UK.. but its still not enough..

Duhh your time zones cant be more than 4 hrs apart I guess.

What is needed is 8 hrs apart at least

the only one posting porn is you in your obscene private messages. gittoutofit. ~*~

Chatty the DB lay nearly dormant for a long time and when Kam became moderator there were more posts in 6 days than in the last 6 months. Most of them were from cool people who wanted to post songs or chat about music. Others came from people who had never posted on the Msic DB before and suddenly rushed in with a list of personal complaints. I understand the Cave and Boiler Room are there for people who have issues with other people but the Music DB should not be.

get your ass in one of them then and we can tell you properly
And it doesnt have to be out in public then

since it was brought up....why am I banned from the Music discussion board?

The problem with repression is just that. For example the word "bitch" is quite harmless in the Uk so I was very surprised to find it rendered as five asterisks when I posted it on a US hosted board. Likewise the US probably has harmless words that are offensive to UK ears, or maybe Mozambican ears or somewhere else's, if you try to avoid offending anyone it becomes impossible to effectively use language so I would much prefer to see those who are offended practicing tolerance rather than trying to close people down. On the point mentioned by Walter Montego and previously by Linda J that use of taboo words demonstrates a limited vocabulary; this is as unsupportable an arguement as one could wish for, every taboo word used is one more word in the vocabulary of the user than in that of the non-user.

I think we all as responsible people should refrain from bad language because we realize there are kids that access the site. Of course no one is perfect and slips up now and then. Overall the language here is quite tame as opposed to other places on internet. Besides here we dont promote real things that are harmful to kids such as porn. I dont think banning someone from a board for a bad word now and then is necessary. However if there is someone who steadily using bad language they should be kept from the board. Personally I feel if someone has to use foul language all the time it speaks very poorly of them and reduces my consideration of what they have to say.

I think banning people from a board for it can be quite sensible in some circumstances. For example, if someone suddenly starts posting bad language for no apparent reason, and they're normally very polite, I might hide their posts for a while assuming they had had a drink or two, or that they were mad about something. It would give them time to either calm down or sober up. It wouldn't be because I thought they deserved to be banned as a punishment. I would see it as more of a calming measure, and allow them to post again after a few hours.

I think being mad, or drinking are just excuses for bad behavior. Where is the line drawn. One time, three times, twenty five times?

I agree that people slip up and say a word that may be offensive to someone in another country. That is going to happen. Most of us in the English speaking world know what those words are and could avoid them on the public boards.

It's not the occassional person that uses a bad word that bothers me. It's the few on here that use them over, and over, and over.
The public boards just isn't the place!

personally, i am much more offended by incorrect spelling and grammar than "bad words", but if everyone can agree it's not ok in public and ok on private boards, then the distinction needs to clearly delineated. What some would consider to be personal attacks were merely considered as harmelss comments on the gothic chess board. Ultimately, everything is subjective here, with so many cultures and languages.

ROFL, speaking of spelling and grammer er.. grammar...... Anyone seen Slam lately?

My spelling is perfect as well as my grammar...if i type in Swedish :)

Music DB Solution:

Remove those who are power-hungry from power -- simple as that. Furthermore, don't let them get in power in the first place (if you can help it).

Far as the doity words go -- Much reason to believe there is a certain majority of folks here who are sooo afraid of theirselves that they feel it is entirely necessary to enforce and/or inflict their personal opinion(s) upon others who may disagree.

You could try to tell parents that keeping their kids from reality is more harmful than reality itself.
And that it's a much better idea to teach their kids about that stuff, instead of hiding it from them -- which will in turn make them more curious and end up lost & confused.

But this action would only serve to aggravate both you and the parents -- with no results.
You can't tell people how to raise their kids -- it's nearly impossible -- and it's also not your responsibility.

Adults telling adults how to act or think or speak is absolutely ridiculous and in most cases, quite arrogant -- Cut that out! :|

Lastly, the conduct of people on the Boards should be handled by natural common sense. If words are being used to hurt someone, then the sensible Moderator should give a warning to the offender(s). If the person seems extremely un-reasonable and hell-bent on making trouble then the sensible Moderator either hides or bans that individual, depending on the degree of the situation.


       That's my No Sale :D
             ~ SF

Having lived in the U.S for 7 years it never ceases to amaze me how seriously "bad" words are taken, yet extreme violence seems to be ignored. The movie scarface was shown on a free to air channel complete with people cut up with a chainsaw but with "bad words" censored. LOL.

Can we get back to Feature Requests now please guys? There's been plenty of input on this subject so please take any further thoughts and discussions elsewhere leaving this board free for feature requests.
Thanks.

Kammy is going to try lifting the posting restrictions. Please respect that the DB is for music and try to deal with non musical issues elsewhere if you must continue to pursue them. Thank you to everybody.

andersp: of course i meant native speakers, i didn't mean to bash anyone learning a new language

grenv: good point about scarface. Children imitate what they are exposed to...therefore, it was an excellent decision to censor the swearing instead of the violence. That way the kids will speak "cleanly" as they evisercate, which is all the more sanitized. Sarcasm aside, it takes a certain type of parent to let a preschooler watch all kinds of TV, esp Scarface, unsupervised, which was the point. As for a real feature request, based on his comment, I nominate grenv to moderate whatever he likes!

Fencer, I think it would be cool to see the team of the opponent in the game itself somewhere. (In the team tournament, of course)
Would this be possible?

Not a problem but where exactly is "somewhere"? :-D

lol.. I was thinking, by their name?

I really don't have a preference... I would say their team logo by their name would be cool, but that might be a bit much, and some teams don't have one..

I would say, either by their name, or down in the game information section..

Thanks Fencer! I see you already did it!
:-D

Did I? Looks like I've accidentally implemented some AI which works for me because I am not aware of any changes since your previous post :-D

just curious ... 0:) ... ~*~