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in reply to Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Front Paging Profanity
in thread Front Paging Profanity

Your point about the need for case-insensitivity is well-taken. Perhaps you ought to send a patch to Abigail (who now maintains the module).

As for eliciting a sigh, don't sweat it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pointing out inadequacies in my work -- in fact, I always appreciate it. Just don't write off an entire module because of a small bug, eh?

And yes, the magic that allows a non-profane regex to match profanity is just rot13'ing.

With regard to the topic of this thread, when it comes to coarse language, I try to follow Oscar Wilde's dictum: "A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude". I cannot know who will read my public messages (or my code), so I find it appropriate to avoid profanity, lest I inadvertently offend someone.

I would rather forgo that small element of my freedom of expression, so as not to infringe upon the community's collective right to comfort. To me, swearing in a public forum is like smoking in an enclosed space, or passing wind in an elevator, or playing a Mariah Carey song out loud. One person's valid form of self-expression is another person's unprovoked assault.

No individual "freedom" is ever absolute. It must always be weighed against the public good. And it's hard to see how this community benefits by front-paging profanity.

Besides, I find it very rare that profanity adds vigour or weight to an argument. Indeed, I usually discount any message that contains crudity ipso facto. And in my own messages, I would rather write well and argue cogently than resort to the convenient bludgeon of rough language.

  • Comment on Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Front Paging Profanity

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Front Paging Profanity
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Oct 21, 2002 at 02:18 UTC

    Hear, hear to the last 4 paragraphs.

    I've been following this debate with interest, but found myself vacillating between the "freedom of speech, words are only words, no cencorship" side of the argument and the fact that I find it uncomfortable to see certain words used in some contexts.

    I don't consider myself a prude and as anyone who knows me in IRL will tell you, I'm not adverse to throwing a few good ....s around when I judge the circumstances warrent them.

    I also find that the occasional use of a well chosen, proscribed word, can serve to increase the poignancy of the speaker/author's meaning, but this only really works when the word or phrase is percieved as being 'out of character'.

    As in the first time I ever heard my grandmother say "Bloody hell".

    Or when during one of my first attempts to drive in rush-hour London traffic I cut up a black cab, and then stalled. As I sat there getting very hot and bothered trying to restart the car and make a quick get away from the scene of my fopar, there was a tap on the side-screen of my car. It was the cabby I had just cut-up and then ever-so-neatly stalled in front of such that he could not manoever until I did. I reluctantly wound the window down--a little!

    "Ok. So yer cut me up and then yer stalled it raht'n front o'me. Big deal! Nah calm the .... down! Puddit in neu'ral. Keep yer darn great plate orf t'gas. Nah try it!"

    Whirrr-rrr-rrr vroo-oom! (With apologies!).

    "Hal-leh-bloody-loo-ya! Nah I c'n get back t'trying t'earn a ....... livin'."

    He half turned away before turning back and saying.

    "Oh. And pleeese. Be calm! Y'll geddon mush betta tha'way."

    That stuck with me.

    There is only one good form of censorship. Self-censorship.

    Cor! Like yer ring! ... HALO dammit! ... 'Ave it yer way! Hal-lo, Mister la-de-da. ... Like yer ring!
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