just out of curiousity, is there a new rule about expletives and asterisks, where we have to write "f*ck" and the like instead of "fuck" and the like, for some reason? and if so, could someone tell me why?

or is this just a weird trend i've noticed cropping up on recent (world's end) posts that has nothing to do with anything but posters' personal preferences?

just seems polite to me..you never know the ages of those who post here.

well that doesn't make any sense. like they couldn't figure out what f*ck means? if "you never know the ages of posters" and you didn't want to swear in front of them i think **** would be better than f*ck. or.. not swearing at all. hmm.
and as far as i know, there's no rule, just personal pref.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fluffyllama,

Fluffy..that technique is used all over the place. I have heard part of a word bleeped but not the whole in songs. I have seen comics that just hide a letter or two. The point being that someone who has never seen the word "shit" before will not know what sh!t is or @ss, etc. Its a fairly trivial thing, but why not?

things like sh!t and @ss are pretty obvious, and they're used to get around language filters. in comics and songs, they're twisting the rules and getting away with it without breaking the rules.
i'm just trying to say that it's silly! there's no swearing rule here, so you're not cheating any rules. either swear or don't!
if you really cared about not swearing in front of young'ns, then you would not swear, instead of implying that you're swearing.

or i found out there's a list of fictional swear words. and they have all the ones i could think of, even pirates of dark water and "jalapeno" from gargoyles.

I was once asked me to change a thread title that had fuck in it so that it wouldn't interfere with work filters... at the least for everyone reading from work it's probably a good idea to keep them out of titles, (aside from Flame Wars), so that they won't get in any trouble with their IT departments and will be able to continue reading for the future.

Otherwise, I always figured that everything goes, and the main reasons anyone wouldn't is out of sheer courtesy. But if the need to curse comes up... then fuck it.

I'm sure one of the rules in the fqa state that swearing is allowed - as long as it wasn't the only thing you did - or words to that effect.

I swore and edited a letter because it wasn't in flame wars. in flame wars i'll swear to my heart's content, but on the WE i won't.

flufflyllama - it's astonishing how many of those "fake" expletives I already know and use!

quote:

Originally posted by Smaug:
I'm sure one of the rules in the fqa state that swearing is allowed - as long as it wasn't the only thing you did - or words to that effect.

yeah, i checked that first, before beginning this thread. i thought maybe there was a new rule that i had missed, though, since it seemed to start up fairly recently.

personally, i'm with the llama. beyond finding asterisking or substituting letters silly looking and useless, i think we dramatically overestimate the virginity of children's ears/eyes. i knew the word "fuck" by the time i was in second grade, and that was before the web was really developed. i don't know a single kid who has made it to sixth grade (12 years old) without knowing a plethora of curse words, and if anyone younger than 12 was posting here, i suspect we would most likely be able to tell.

There is no official policy. We do have some newer board members, and it may be that the places they post ordinarily use those fake swears as a matter of course.

Really, typing f*ck is no different from exclaiming "fudge!" when you're really angry. Everyone in the room, young and old, knows what you really wanted to say, but it's generally considered somewhat more polite to fake it anyway.

I realize that this is an artificial social construct, but so is the handshake.

aww, i thought handshakes were foreplay...

Depends what it is you shake with your hand...

your tibia?

Ooh, I wish...

It would make sense to practice restraint in threads for Coraline, Wolves in the Walls, etc, since we show up on Google. Otherwise, ditto, status quo.

Besides, using [CENSORED] is much more funny, like the audio beep.

*repeatedly [CENSORED] flamey head*

[PROFANITY]!!!

I'm tellin' on youuuuu!

*runs to mods and tattles*

SPY!

*kicks the blue kermit and flamey head*

[PROFANITY] again!!!