Jack Mann
2006-10-18, 06:57 AM
Since we're moving to new software, might I make a suggestion?
Lose the swear filters.
Really. They don't stop anyone. They can still use asterisks and l33tspeak equivilants to swear if they wanted to get around it. And it often tags perfectly innocent words, or words that are used in innocent circumstances. An opening in someone's armor, a certain kind of laughter, a certain town in North Lincolnshire...
What stops people from swearing or using racial epithets is the same thing that stops them from disobeying other rules: knowledge that they'll get tagged by the moderators. The filters don't help. They only get in the way.
Lose the swear filters.
Really. They don't stop anyone. They can still use asterisks and l33tspeak equivilants to swear if they wanted to get around it. And it often tags perfectly innocent words, or words that are used in innocent circumstances. An opening in someone's armor, a certain kind of laughter, a certain town in North Lincolnshire...
What stops people from swearing or using racial epithets is the same thing that stops them from disobeying other rules: knowledge that they'll get tagged by the moderators. The filters don't help. They only get in the way.