I've gone ahead and disabled the word filter censorship feature. In the past it's censored words and replaced them with asterisks, as I'm sure many of you are aware. I originally started this site as a young teenager and the censorship feature is a remnant of that. I now feel that it impedes realism in writing and goes against my strong support for freedom of speech. Additionally, user response in the survey we recently held overwhelmingly supported ending the censorship. I'm unsure whether this change will refers previously filtered words, but future words will not be censored. I'm currently looking for a software solution that will allow option censorship on a user by user basis, not sitewide. It is still against the rules to flame or provoke a user, including doing so with profanity.
+ rep. C: It appears, so far, that it does not. ... I also don't really want to feel like the first person to say that it's "f-ing" ridiculous (in a good way), even though, in speech, I swear like a sailor. Thank you, Daniel. C:
Does this mean it's allowed to use profanity and sexual language in stories, or just that it's our responsibility to censor ourselves now?
@Islander: I do believe it's the former. As for the latter, it's your responsiblity to not swear too much in the general part of the forum. There's no need to swear every few words, but if I say "fuck" once, it's probably okay. Just don't make anybody uncomfortable with it?
Heh. It's unfortunately that disabling the filter didn't retroactively uncensor the content. I don't think there's anything I can do about it though. If it's for a particular story or post, one could always go back and edit it in? I would say a form of self-censorship would be good at this point. Using curse words or crude language is acceptable, namely in works of writing in the Writing Workshop, but excessive use or extreme sexual content may still receive an infraction; this rule is sort influx - I'll see how it's used and how everyone response to it before making it more set it stone. Based on my own feelings and strengthened by the survey results, I would say that I intend to move the site in a direction of less censorship/more freedom of speech, and may very well implement some sort of rating or warning system for content that some people may consider explicit. The details or conditions haven't been worked out exactly, but this possible change would come sometime after we upgrade the software. Exactly. To break it down, I'd say cursing within the Writing Workshop section - because it's your work of art - is almost universally acceptable. Swearing in the general forum, outside of the workshops, is permitted to a lesser degree. "Fuck" will be looked upon more harshly than "damn." Excessive cursing in the general forum area is not permitted. Swearing while flaming, attacking, or criticizing a user is especially not permitted. The latter two situations will result in infractions, whereas writing in the Writing Workshop or occasionally in the general forum sections would not. I hope that makes it clear for everyone wondering.
Good. The rules on content remain unchanged, and I believe that is good too. Swearing is acceptable if used in moderation, and not directed toward other members. Bigotry is never acceptable. Eliminating the filter does not weaken the site's standards, in my opinion. Also, the filter was having the unintended side effect of altering urls and some innocuous words, leading to either unnecessary frustration or accidental hilarity.
