One Thing I Never Understood

SoBe_Dragon · June 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Servers, Forums...etc /rant on</div> Ok i'm at work and i'm on break for 15 so I wanna type something up that I NEVER understrood.

100's of servers out there, and these fourms included have these "bad-word" filters placed on them, and I CANNOT contemplate why they are there. Before you read on, I am not flaming these forums, I just want to explain my logic and mebbe open this topic up for discussion. This is more of a server issue then these forums, I just use this as an example.

I go to a server...i try to type the "F-Word" and there is this filter that gets rid of it. WHY? Did the server admins forget that Half-Life is rated M 17+?? These bad word filters are in place so the little kiddies dont get corrupted by our adult language. NS, CS, TFC...all of the good mods have these filters in place, and I just dont see the point. I hear this 8 year old on voice comm, and I keep thinking "Half-Life is rated M 17+...why are these kids here, and why are they effecting the community?". I dont understand why forum moderators, and server admins aim the game...or modify it...for the children.

I think that it might have been a mistake to bring these forums into the discussion, but hey, we'll see what you folk come up with. Explain to me why there are bad word filters for text, when this game is so heavily relied on voice comm.

/rant off

TheWizard · June 2003

Servers dont want to deal with all of the legal issues involved in monitoring what people say. It makes the job for admins a bit easier and there is less of a chance of people getting offended and leaving the server.
The same people who spam voicechat would abuse foul language if it wasnt blocked.

Personally I really get tired of people using foul language as an alternative to adjectives.

X_Stickman · June 2003

They annoy me too. There are some situations where only a bit of, shall we say, creative language can get your team moving. On TFC, you get killed about 20 times by the enemies sniper while your sniper is sitting there looked at his ""elite" new spray", and using the sniper spot up. You can't go "Please, Mr.Sniper person, would you be ever so nice as to point your gun in the direction of their sniper and attempt to kill him?" No, you scream untill he does it or buggers off the server, either way, it's for the good of the team. Oh yeah, this one server has "Wh0re" filtered out, you say it twice and get kicked (three times = ban), yet "F*ck" is not filtered at all.

****EDIT****

I just realised that i put the * AND the U in that naughty word up there. sorry

Insane · June 2003

The reason that servers filter text and not voice-comm is that basically, you can't filter voice-comm. People with many different voices play HL, and all voice-recognition software I've ever come across requires calibration to your voice before it can be used. That, and voice-comm is shaky quality at best.

However, many people feel that excessive language is.. well, excessive and unnesscessary. So, in an attempt to put a damper on it, they filter text.

And whether or not HL is rated M 17+, there are plenty of people that buy and play it anyway, but may still be sensitive to adverse language. There's also nothing stopping them coming to places such as these forums. In addition, different countries have different rating systems. For example, I'm in the UK, and my HL box has only an ELSPA rating of 15+ on it.

TotalNooB · June 2003

What I never understood was some of the words that were censored.
Spicy, for insttance, is censored on several servers I've been to. Maybe you're allergic to chillis, but otherwise I can't think of a reason that would be offensive <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Nemesis_Zero · June 2003

The main reason behind these boards swearword filters is to obstruct flamers. Yes, it doesn't make flames impossible, but trolls on the lookout for easy flamefests will get deterred. Don't think we from the wider staff don't like to swear. Quite on the contrary.

I'm <span style='color:white'>moving</span> this to O-T, as it is by SoBes statement not NS-specific.

BigMadSteve · June 2003

I've found this on a few servers....

At the console it says "Don't swear, it's blocked" or something along those lines. I was playing for a couple of hours on the server and I forgot about the rule and swore because I was getting incredibly **** off at someone, it didn't get censored. Then just tried loads of obscenities and nothing got censored

But....

I began to talk in German to someone and most of the words got censored (<b>they were not German obscenities, I know that for a fact</b>). Quite strange isn't it? Used to get that a lot in CS.

pardzh · June 2003

While you can't really stop it, I agree that young kinds should really not have this game.

For one, the original HL was pretty bloody, and two, they're just so damn annoying over voicecomm. I hate it when I'm comming and I hear a squeaky little voice yelling, "COMM I NEED A MEDPACK OH MY GOD."

Twex · June 2003

The way I see it, trying to censor swear words is just as immature as using them.

A few decades ago "idiot" was a normal, medical term for the mentally deficient. Then it became an insult, and the Political Correctness crowd switched to "retarded". Of course that's an insult too now, so the PC term needs to switch again (what's the current one? "mentally challenged"?). And so on, and so on.

They're just words. If certain words are outlawed, people will say the same nasty thing using different words.

Salty · June 2003

This thread is so mentally challenged that it can go ingurgitate my genitalia then go fornicate itself.

We just need children control.

roachems · June 2003

The filters don't bother me so much if it just takes your text and puts it in ******. Its those really annoying ones that **** me off- "I just tried to swear in a non-swearing server".

How lame!
I see how admins try to keep flaming to a low, but when they changed your text, thats just stupid.

Cereal_KillR · June 2003

but isnt the "f-word" and little stars actually the exact meaning? If someone has never heard the "said word" than he deserves to stop living behind a rock. And if he is offended by it, well... just take notice that stars or not, the message is still the exact same.

MonsieurEvil · June 2003

We censor words on this forum because it works - it's an easy and automatic way to remind people that they are on private property and they need to act like civilised humans and not a bunch of wackjobs saying whatever they please. The tendency of younger people is to get away with whatever they can, and the surest sign of an ill-managed and worthless forum is that it's nothing but cursing teenagers. I have plenty of examples if you need them.

The same reason the Onos bot operates that way in the #naturalselection IRC channel.

Simple as that.

Shockeh · June 2003

Monse, re: Onos....

So you mean like an evil rampaging beast, that occasionally gets mad for little reason, yet sometimes takes a damn while to be woken into bothering? <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'>

Fam · June 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (SoBe.Dragon @ Jun 14 2003, 05:35 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I keep thinking "Half-Life is rated M 17+...why are these kids here, and why are they effecting the community?". I dont understand why forum moderators, and server admins aim the game...or modify it...for the children.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
HL is not rated M17. I do believe my copy is rated 14+, but that is not a compulsary age limit, just a recommendation. There is (was) nothing in place to stop people buying Half-Life because of their age. Aside from the age point, I don't see why anyone feels the need to swear to get their point across. Were you not taught a vocabulary at a young age? Did you skip english classes? What you deem as 'appropriate behaiviour' is not always the commonly held view. If I saw you swearing your head off in real life, in front of my friends, or indeed my younger brother, I would not hestitate to make you shut up.

Why do you need to swear? Calm down. Read a dictionary. Address the problem with means that will help.

MonsieurEvil · June 2003

I've said it before and I'll say it again: When you have to manage a forum with 17,000 users (most of them teenagers with raging hormones, unloving parents, etc.) you can turn off the filters and tell us all about it. Until then, you are all going to have to live with it. Like life, you are not going to get what you want every single time.

This is one of those 'unfair' moments.

Click.

One Thing I Never Understood

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