MyBB Community Forums

How do you guys feel about censoring certain words in your forum?
I know of course people will eventually find new ways around it (for example if blueberry "the b word" was censored maybe they'll put a 1 or ! to substitute the i) - but I can always censor those new ways.

Hahaha - I realize the "b word" is censored here to blueberry

What do you guys think?
Is it even worth the time? The community my forum targets is a rough bunch. 8/10 times someone backstabs one another, attacks one another (DDoS attacks and such).. in the end it all comes down to money (that's life huh?). Not to mention the majority are less than 18 years old (actually I think it's safe to say most are less than 16 years old)

I'm not the only forum targeting that audience but maybe I can attempt to mold it into another direction if I prevent them from cussing every other chance they get. Some of the stuff is pretty ridiculous and out of hand... for example. I had to use bit.ly since MyBB censors the "f word".

How do you guys feel about censoring cuss words on your boards?

And if you already do censor cuss words, how has that worked out for you?

I censor all swear words on my forum. If they work their way around it you reprimand them for it. Some forums there's no point censoring because of the type of people attracted to it.

I don't really censor anything. ZEJ is a pretty lax forum when it comes to rules anyway -- there's no huge list, just one: use common sense.

Censorship isn't an easy thing to bring or enforce to an online community. Most of the people on the internet who sign up to these online communities these days are looking for a place where they discuss there thoughts and opinions freely without the threat of censorship and with the freedom of anonymity, regardless of how inappropriate.
That being said, there's not really much we should do to censor them unless:

• Their behaviour or words give a negative image to the forum or towards the members.
  
• Your site is aimed for little kids under the age of 13 or so.
  
• Your site is aimed towards family-oriented topics.
  
• Your site is aiming for professionalism.
  

The only reason I censor swear words on my forum is because its funny. I already enforce rules about excessively swearing and there is a requirement for the registered user to be over the age of 13, though that may or may not be enforced. I don't feel it necessary to reprimand a couple of intentionally misspelled swears, as long as they dont negatively affect the discussions on a thread.

I don't censor any words on my forums. I was thinking about censoring racial slurs, but that's about as far as I'll go. It really depends on your niche, but I normally don't care for censoring curse words. As long as they're not directed at someone, I'm fine with people using them in moderation.

On my big board I censor bad words but not overall content. The site is not intended for 18 and under but the my niche is family oriented so I wanted to keep the language to a minimum. But I do allow users to override the word filter via a plugin I have

@BlackChaos, I think you worded it wrong imo. I don't think a forum needs to be aimed at 13 or under to censor some words, I think if it is the type of forum that could attract that age group, then you should think about it. The majority of our userbase is 15-21 but we obviously do have kids signing up so all the offensive cuss words have been filtered.

(2012-08-16, 02:37 AM)Anxiety Wrote: [ -> ]@BlackChaos, I think you worded it wrong imo. I don't think a forum needs to be aimed at 13 or under to censor some words, I think if it is the type of forum that could attract that age group, then you should think about it. The majority of our userbase is 15-21 but we obviously do have kids signing up so all the offensive cuss words have been filtered.

Thanks Anx. Thats actually what I meant. It was 4 in the morning when I wrote that up haha.

Well, I don't censor and cuss words on my forums not because the type of people that are on it, just because the don't even use the word very much and haven't had a problem with it yet. but maybe one day depending on if it gets out of control or not.

Why censor? Isn't the internet all about freedom? I usually leave it to be, but when it gets out of control (Every second word being profane), I take action