Language filter adjustment?

[School Cop]

What's with the filter all of a sudden " *** "-ing out the three letters a, s, s anytime they come consecutively, even in the interior of a word? Makes sense if it stands alone, but not as part of the word. It's a pretty common occurrence in English.

Now we have to say a car "goes past" another, instead of "p***es" it?

[normal1]

May be its misconfigured? instead of banning "a-s-s" it bans "*a-s-s*" (without dashes) *shrugs*

[bigj8550]

Yes I just noticed it. Look at my signature line!?!?! This definately sucks ***

[WAPM]

Yeah. words like:
p***port, p***, gr***, m***, b***, l***ie, s***, t***le, ***ure, ***ess, ***essment, etc all get filtered.

It's a little excessive.

[Tim Dees]

This is one of those shakeout issues with the new forum software. It's been fixed now. However, you can expect the bar to be set higher on the use of profanity in the forums. If you wouldn't say it in church, don't say it here. The use of @, $, ! and so on to get stuff past the filters will be regarded as the same as using the prohibited word.

[ElDiabloJoe]

... The use of @, $, ! and so on to get stuff past the filters will be regarded as the same as using the prohibited word.

Mental note to self made, thanks for the head's up!

EDJ

[Redders]

Could we get su****ion fixed please?

[mavriktu]

Anyone notice the home page,today?? It has whispers Fart

[Tim Dees]

Anyone notice the home page,today?? It has whispers Fart

What appears elsewhere on the site isn't affected by the profanity filters. But I still wasn't kidding about cracking down on the use of profanity.

[mavriktu]

uhhh Tim,notice the smileys,it was tongue in cheek humor.I agree (to an extent) on the language,sometimes though it is somewhat necessary ,as in quotes etc,that the asterik thing be used,in order for the point to get accross.

[lionheart45]

The language filter makes no sense to me, if your going to have a filter block out certain words why delete/edit posts with the "*"? So beyond swearing it's offensive for people to see a series of "*"'s?

If your going to edit posts that contain "*"'s why not just make the filter not allow the post instead of leaving "*"s?

[Tim Dees]

The language filter makes no sense to me, if your going to have a filter block out certain words why delete/edit posts with the "*"? So beyond swearing it's offensive for people to see a series of "*"'s?

If your going to edit posts that contain "*"'s why not just make the filter not allow the post instead of leaving "*"s?

There are two objectives here. One is to keep profanity from being posted in the forum. The filters screen for specific character strings. For instance, I messed up by including a four-letter word that is an ethnic slur towards Hispanics. Unfortunately, that four-letter string occurs in legitimate words, like conspicuous and suspicious. I had to take that one out.

The filter isn't set up to delete an entire post that contains a word in the list.

The other objective is to raise the professional level in the forum. I take the perspective that if you can't express yourself without profanity, you need to expand your vocabulary. I disagree with mavriktu about curse words being necessary to get a point across. If you're quoting someone, I think {expletive} gets the point across just fine. The context usually makes it pretty clear what the word was.

My experience is that people like to include profanity for shock value, especially in an environment where it is not expected or condoned. In person, the word accompanies a big smile when the speaker thinks he or she has done something clever.

I write a lot (it's kind of my job), and I can always find a word that conveys the point I am trying to make without resorting to cursing. This is not to say that I don't curse myself - but I'm careful about where I do it. The forum is not a locker room. There is a level of personal and professional conduct expected, and I'm trying to keep that level as high as possible. If this offends the neanderthal types that can't get through a sentence without dropping a few F-bombs, then that's the way it goes. Professionalism in law enforcement won't come about in one huge wave. It will be incremental, like all big changes. The Officer.com forum is one of those increments.

[Freedomnow40]

profanity and cops

Im sorry Tim, the majority of Cops I work with have a master degrees in CJ, {30% increase in pay}and are veterans. Cops and military personal use profanity all the time no matter what their education, it depends who is around. If you get Cops together the F bomb is dropped. Cops use sarcasim and profanity to get across a point. Now with that said someone has to keep the forum in check and that is you Tim, carry on.

[grog18b]

Yeah, I guess I could have said "Ticked off" instead of the "p" word...

[Tim Dees]

Cops and military personal use profanity all the time no matter what their education, it depends who is around.

And there you have it - it depends who is around. The content of the forum is seen by thousands, and it remains here indefinitely. I'd rather have an example of police professionalism than one of the locker room.