done

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Okay, I had to pipe on in here. The D word that holds back water is a banned word now? Come on guys, you are getting VERY heavy handed. This is a word used every day in communication...even the FCC is not that strict.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

I started looking, too, after seeing the suggestion and your reply. The one thing I saw was that a KC Chiefs forum has that exact option, but I wasn't able to find anything more about it.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/faq.php?faq=vb_faq

Awesome! I have written their staff to ask what they are using to accomplish this. Based on the description they have it seems pretty comprehensive! :thumbsup

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Okay, I had to pipe on in here. The D word that holds back water is a banned word now? Come on guys, you are getting VERY heavy handed. This is a word used every day in communication...even the FCC is not that strict.

I think you are confusing that with "dam" which is not filtered.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

I think you are confusing that with "dam" which is not filtered.

Closest I could come to the word without the filter dance, Art. Cursed semantics!

 

[exoray]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

I have taken a look and there doesn't appear to be any plug-ins that would give members the option to enable/disable the censored word filter (although there are several requests for exactly what gokarosama suggested). We are still looking into this and trying to find a good solution.

Since 3.8.1 is a service/security upgrade of 3.7.0 with the basic core code intact anyone with basic PHP skills should be able to verify and/or do any minor tweaks to this add-on to get it working... In fact there is a comment on the add-on (page 3) stating it works on 3.8 so chances are it will work with no modification at all...

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=176544

 

[SFPROPS]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

The problem with the term "family friendly" is it can be either twisted or over-exaggerated to a level far beyond its original intent or meaning.

I think if more focus was placed on the expectation that members "exhibit mature behavior" and less on basing all decisions on maintaining a "family friendly" forum it would probably cause less confusion. The Code of Conduct itself is pretty clear. The consequences for not following it are also pretty clear. As long as that is clearly and consistently applied, there really isn't a need to over-emphasize such a vague term like "family friendly" no matter how much it might be a pet project of some.

But to be clear, I completely understand and agree with filtering out certain curse words, it's expanding that filter to attempt to limit entire concepts that seems misguided, because it is quite a slippery slope.

Today it's religious terminology, but what happens the next time an "offensive" topic rears its head? What about "police?" "Government?" "Recast?" "Prequel Trilogy?" All of those words have played a part in various unrest over the years, but are the words really the problem, or the context in which they're used?

Because if you agree it's the context, and not the words themselves, you should also consider the value of allowing yourselves the ability to moderate the specific use, instead of handing off that ability to an automated profanity filter.

Otherwise, I'm left with the impression that as long as it isn't restricted by the profanity filter, it must be okay. Or on the other hand, if someone tries to sell a replica Cross of Coronado, Holy Grail, or Spear of Destiny and those words are blocked out, is that person now somehow in violation of the Code of Conduct?

I certainly hope not, but the impression is they've crossed some kind of line, and I don't think that level of filtering is needed or deserved. This is just collateral damage from a totally unrelated problem, and won't really help solve the intended problem, which is preventing the discussion of certain topics.

I agree with this 100%. I have no problems keeping potty mouths in check. That's much different than trying to filter out ideas and speech that might POTENTIALLY be controversial from ever being expressed.

If you start filtering general expression and not just vulgar language, you're going to find a lot of the more intellectually honest members who oppose outright censorship might stop participating here. If that's okay with the powers that be, I think you are making a mistake. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Since 3.8.1 is a service/security upgrade of 3.7.0 with the basic core code intact anyone with basic PHP skills should be able to verify and/or do any minor tweaks to this add-on to get it working... In fact there is a comment on the add-on (page 3) stating it works on 3.8 so chances are it will work with no modification at all...

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=176544

Good find! I suspect this MUST be the plug-in blownhemi found at chiefsplanet as I have found no others. Since chiefsplanet hasn't gotten back to us I will pursue this solution (I hope they update it for the upcoming vB 4.0 release!). Thanks for the help guys! Nothing like working together to find viable solutions for a common problem!

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

If you start filtering general expression and not just vulgar language, you're going to find a lot of the more intellectually honest members who oppose outright censorship might stop participating here. If that's okay with the powers that be, I think you are making a mistake.

And we 100% agree with you. I am not sure where this sentiment is coming from that we are or will be censoring "general expression" as you aren't the first to bring it up. We have no intent or interest in doing so and I would agree with you that if we began to censor content outside the confines of the Code of Conduct, I would expect there to be a lot of very unhappy members. As I said, we have no interest in such things and actually see a more thorough use of the censored word list as a possible gateway to lessening the need for some of the existing rules forbidding profanity.

 

[SithLord]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

I'm not familiar with vbulletin, but phpBB 3.0.5 or 6 has this under Post Settings in the General section:

Allow disabling of word censoring:
Users can choose to disable the automatic word censoring of posts and private messages.




I'm surprised vbulletin would require an add-on for that?

 

[blownhemi]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Exoray is awesome! Great find!

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Both of you are awesome! Guess you are getting an infraction along with ItsThatGuy (if you don't get that joke... check this thread)

I'd like to thank everyone who has shared their thoughts on this, both publicly and privately and thanks to both blownhemi and Exoray for helping find potential solutions. From the input we have received, we have updated the censored word list a bit, removing a few of the terms to which members seemed to have the most issue.

For future reference, we keep a current copy of the censored words here for you to look at whenever you would like.

If you have suggestions on additional words, pleas PM me (please don't post the words here in the open forum).

 

[lonepigeon]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

List isn't all bad, but still seems a little excessive.

Does Hellboy get censored?

Edit: guess not, but some might still have trouble describing props from that movie or others without the he-double-hockeysticks.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Good call. Just so you understand how the list works, if the word is by itself (with no brackets) anytime that combination of letters comes up, even within a larger phrase, it will be censored... the words that are within brackets MUST be standing alone to be censored.

While I have taken hell out of the list, based on the fact that it had brackets around it, hellboy would not be censored but the "hell" in "hell boy" would have been.

 

[Emeldahay]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

For future reference, we keep a current copy of the censored words here for you to look at whenever you would like.

Not meaning to be a **** but isnt posting the rude word list like telling the children not to look at daddys ***** magazines he hides under the wardrobe? :lol

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

We are all adults here and the staff has nothing to hide. The censored word list was created and implemented in order to maintain a certain level of professionalism on the site. Since updating it, and because the members have not have had access to the list itself, some seem to have mistakenly assumed that the word list contained a great deal more than it does and expressed concern that is was being or might be used to censor more than words that are outlined in the Code of Conduct. We have no issue with sharing the list in order to quell these concerns and to provide greater transparency between the staff and the members. If we feel members are using the list to circumvent the filter, we will deal with it on a case by case basis.

The mistake in your analogy is the idea that there is an us vs them mentality in which we are showing our hand and giving away some "advantage." The staff is not at odds with the membership and we would like to think that the positively contributing members of this community won't play games with us, try to take advantage of the list, or purposefully break the code of conduct simply to needle us.

 

[Rylo]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Agreed.

I've got bit of a problem with this whole "keep it clean for the kiddies" concept.

I mean, that's great if you're running a forum for children, but I've always been under the impression that this an adult forum, for the most part.

Besides, it's not like anyone is making up Dice-Man style prop rymes or anything.

That is a truly brilliant idea dude. I personally go into seizures and tend to commit hate crimes whenver I see swear words in print, so the toggle would definitely be used by me. I dunno how to explain it. Something in my head just snaps when I see swear words on the internet, and I can't control myself anymore. It defines my behavior, those hateful words of others.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

We have been testing the software solution Exoray found (obviously some of you have seen it and are acting like kids on Christmas morning with a new toy...:rolleyes) and unfortunately are having some inconsistency issues with postcache.

In the original link Exoray provided (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=176544) Wayne Luke (one of vB's programmers) points out this very issue to the creator of the hack. We are writing chiefsplanet, again, as well as Wayne, and the original hack creator to see if there is a solution that would allow for greater consistency than we saw during testing. Will let you know what we find. I still think this is the best idea and would be all for it, IF we can make it work as it should.

 

[Contec]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

We have been testing the software solution Exoray found (obviously some of you have seen it and are acting like kids on Christmas morning with a new toy...:rolleyes)

So that explaines why my thread became "Magic" :thumbsup

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

So that explaines why my thread became "Magic" :thumbsup

Yes indeed. :lol

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Christian Relic Name Ban?

Seems like the concern about the words in the censored word list has died down a bit, but I did want to report back on our findings with the mod that Exoray suggested.

Here is Wayne Luke's (a vBulletin developer) response to the problems we had creating an on/off switch for censoring content:

"Word censoring is done when the post is stored, not when it is viewed. After it is censored the original word is lost. "

And here is the response from the creator of the hack:

"It certainly does sounds like the post cache kicking in, however I have to admit that I never did get to the bottom of how the VB caching system works.

In my somewhat limited testing I found the same problem when switching between off and on. It seems that viewing the post reads from the cache, editing the post reads directly from the database. Unfortunately I am sorry to say that I never found a solution to the issue."

Considering these comments and the fact that members have seemed to calm down a bit, we are dropping this search for an on/off switch for now.