Thread: Message filter for language

This is a suggestion in the light of a recent post that was made which got to my email inbox. Someone had registered to SRP and started to post offensive, filthy sex stories. This post was in a thread that had been inactive for a while so the thread became reactive and the post was emailed to anyone who had subscribed to the thread.

I have since spoken to a mod and it has been deleted (thank you ByronTodd) but the fact remains this could be easily rectified. Simply create a filter which auto blocks posts which contain key words. If you need examples of words to block just check out the post that was deleted. Its littered with them.

This would also remove some of the work from the shoulders of our busy mods. I'm not talking about heavy censorship here, but if you had this message in your inbox you'd doubtless feel the same as I did.

Personally, I would lose all interest in this forum if such a device was installed! It may protect the delicate feelings of some, but it would likely change the content without concern for the context of our own posts!
Mindless censorship? no thank you!

To avoid hurt feelings and any amount of tension, I will simply respond with a nod and a "thanks" application. Do as you will, but we are all grown people.



Adam

the biggest problem with filters is that they are in practice a blunt instrument. There are forums I use where people have words censored because they have what could be seen as a *swear* (and how this is defined is in itself open to contention) word aspart of their spelling- assessment, for example, was censored.

The post I refer to was completely unrelated to the thread, was simply a new user spamming the forum for the sake of it and was pornographic. Every second word was derogatory. If anyone could get away with posting that here I wouldn't be here. Fortunately the mods do a grand job of deleting these posts as soon as they are made. You may not notice it but they do. In a sense that censorship is already in place. A filter would only make it easier for them.

But if you want to make the mods work as hard as they do at the moment then i'm sure they'd appreciate your sentiment

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

But if you want to make the mods work as hard as they do at the moment then i'm sure they'd appreciate your sentiment

I didn't realize that I was such a wicked overlord! I shall repent of my ways immediately!


Wheres my whip so that I may flagellate myself...hmm...20 lashes ought to do it!

The main problem with a word list is that every post containing the banned word will be blocked/deleted, even if the post is perfectly innocent, like

- He was a sex offender and was jailed for the next ten years
- My Bulldog bitch had three babies yesterday, and they are lovely
- When speaking about heart disease, Viagra could be a good med to help your blood be more liquid and thus save your life

And won't block post like - so beautifuly - written by peas_and_corn... Do you have a previous experience in that field ? (everybody can think of many other examples from their Inbox)

I know this means more work for the mods... I'm sorry about that (and believe me, I know what I'm saying, I have also a personal site to take care of with me wife), but why not trying to have more mods by forum, at least two (one US time, one Europe time) ?

Or you can try to use a script (or plugin) which will compare words in the post with those in the link (for instance, *sex* in the post AND in a link), but I don't know if such a script exist...or maybe something like:
- activating email verification: [Any Version] How to Reduce Spam and Registration Bots - vBulletin Community Forum
- queuing the suspected post - need to be approved by a mod: Prevent Spam Posts - Page 3 - vBulletin.org Forum

Just my two cents

BTW with a word blocker, this post would have been deleted...

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

but if you had this message in your inbox you'd doubtless feel the same as I did.

i AM offended, but for opposite reasons!

why don't *I* get any filthy sex stories in my inbox??? i feel so left out, my inbox is lacking in lascivious lore and lewd lies!

seriously, though, word based filtering is useless unless language is static, and if the internet has taught me one thing, it's that language is NEVER static.