MyBB Community Forums

Once I had a member go off on me because they thought I had personally changed their title to "Posting Freak". He was very offended. I had to explain but I think they just left.

Wow, on one rather large forum I used to run, the titles were decided before I got there and one of them was a little offensive for some users (but fit the site pretty well) so we ended up listing the public user titles in a thread which cut down the complaints to near 0.

Are people really that sensitive?

I'm offended by your negative tone towards people that are "that sensitive".

Good, it answers my question .

If someone is significantly offended by a user title, they're probably not going to be a very good fit for most communities on the whole. For that matter, I don't really see how they manage to function in society at all.

If others get a kick out of it or find it humorous, let the offended user(s) change it to a custom one. Altering the public title to something completely free from any sort of material that could be interpreted as offensive would, in most cases, make it boring. Don't be afraid to give your board some character just because of a hypersensitive user here or there.

I remember a bunch years back when I first joined a forum I was offended by the user title "noob". As I was new to the web at that time, I complained about it and ultimately left the site. However, that was years ago, so who cares anyway?

I don't really mind what the user titles are as long as they are not completely inapropriate.

Thanks for all the remarks and suggestions. “Guru”, “Devotee”, “Master”, or “no title at all” sound better ideas than the idea of a “freak”.

I also agree with Ryan that “any word that means ‘this user posts a lot’ might be offensive to those who have the title.”

labrocca’s and Immad’s remarks reassured me that I’m not the only one to be sensitive to titles.

NetSage seems to underestimate the sensitive aspect of human beings.

Bey Brad points an irony:

(2009-07-03, 12:03 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]I find irony in someone owning a site called "MyBB for Dummies" finding "Posting Freak" potentially offensive.

Where does the irony lie exactly? I only launched the site to help many a desperate member who posted threads in this forum, like this one: Installation Guide For an Idiot? To my knowledge, the word “dummy” has become a familiar term for those who have no idea whatsoever about a particular subject. Although I was encouraged, by many members in this forum to launch such a site under that name (MyBB For Dummies!), I’ll suspend that site immediately, if you or any other member think the word is offensive.

(2009-07-03, 01:54 AM)Joshua Mayer Wrote: [ -> ]Addict would be a good one.

Yes, specially for Vodka-dependent members.

Er.. it's just a title.
Go change it in your UCP.