I have an uncle and an old schoolmate, both of whom are named Dick, am I (or they) allowed to use their name on this site?

This is a serious question and I think the other Jellies deserve to know the exact words that are off limits and why? My words, tits and boobies are legitimate words for birds. There was nothing obscene in my title question, the pictures or links that I posted and you mods didn’t give me any reason for why other questions that did, indeed, use those words as euphemisms for the female breast were not modded. Why just my question? And why the question that asked about the modding process? Why was that removed?

People ask about the modding process all the time. Other Jellies complain about the modding process all the time. Is it OK to question the modding process in a thread, but not on an actual question, even though that is the question? I didn’t say anything negative about the modding process, I just described and quoted what was said to me, to explain to the other Jellies why I had to alter my question.

Are Ornithologists banned from discussing their legitimate profession on Fluther?

My Aunt Fanny would like to get to the bottom of this too.

THIS is certainly not a niggardly question.

{That is to say you weren’t stingy with your words. I mean that’s what niggardly means; stingy}

I think the reason that got modded is because of the word game aspect of it which led peeps to believe it was actually talking about boobs when it wasn’t, therefore all those words were deemed ’‘unnecessary’’. As far as the actual content of the question went, essentially the title could have been written entirely differently. At least that’s my guess.
Personally I thought it was harmless and cute, mind. What I’m answering here isn’t personal opinion on the question, just trying to guess as to why it got the obscene treatment. I’m guessing if you asked a question that actually dealt with breasts, it would have remained.

…that WAS the one with the hot sexy gauls I posted.

Now I want to know what questions you could possibly have written that were interpreted as nsfw when they were not…

Edit: Oh that question. Ummm…

I’m just glad @MyNewtBoobs isn’t here to witness this.

Lol, boobs everywhere.

@Symbeline I know, they’re flying all around!

Questions don’t really get modded for obscenity or impropriety on Fluther, do they? Ah, but ask a question that seems frivolous (or which might lead to, heaven knows, “dancing” or something), and that’ll bring the house down.

I recall how I was rebuked when a new jelly came to ask this question about “how to find a girl for a threesome on the internet” and I flagged it as inappropriate. Oh, gosh no. “How to find a prostitute or debauch a young woman” isn’t inappropriate, but a playful question that might turn into or look like – gasp! – a game! Well, can’t have that, can we?

I have an uncle and an old schoolmate, both of whom are named Dick, am I (or they) allowed to use their name on this site?

Of course! There are plenty of Dicks on this site.

George Carlin’s seven dirty words (really the FCC)
Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits

So when your question was taken down, did a mod explain to you what they were modding it for?

@Kardamom No explanation? That’s a first. Did you ask?

[Mod says] @Kardamom Your question about the birds was sent back only because of the specific title of your question. It had nothing to do with the content. The message that was sent to you in regards to the first question you asked was as follows:
Your question title was too obscene. Please dial it back to make it work-appropriate.While your question is not a normal NSFW question, our guidelines do require that question titles be safe for work. “Tits” and “boobies” definitely do not meet that guideline. Please change those words in your title. Thanks!

I’m sorry if this was not enough of an explanation as to why your question was sent back for editing. Per our guidelines under the NSFW questions, the question title must still be “safe for work”. While your question content was not under the NSFW category, the words “tits” and “boobies” still fall into that category. In regards to why there have been other questions in the past that were allowed to stay up with such words, I don’t have a specific answer. The questions you posted links to in your other question were older questions, from 2010 before I was a mod. Also, there are things that get by us sometimes. That is why we ask users to flag stuff to bring it to our attention.

Technically speaking, the question title for this question is also not acceptable because of the name Dick. Once again, while I understand it is not a NSFW question, filtering software does not recognize content, only the words. This is why Fluther wants the actual question titles to be safe for work. The question details may contain the words, just not the title. I’m going to leave this question up for now so that users can see the answer, but it will be sent back for editing as well to remove “Dick” from the title later.

If you have any other questions, we are happy to answer them for you. You can reach all of the mods at once via the contact the mods button at the top of the screen.

This question is being moved to Meta as it is about Fluther and I’m posting this answer on the other question as well so it does not get missed for those not involved in both questions.

Stupid question: can “penis” and “breast” be allowed in the title?

Just out of curiosity: Are we allowed to use the term “sweater bunnies”? How about “breasticles”?

Actually, I’m pretty sure I have a list of 100 euphemisms for ‘breast’. Shall we go through them one by one?

And just so we’re not leaving the boys out, I think there might be a list of euphemisms for the male version of danglybits as well.

Perhaps we should publish a list of pre-approved terminology for anatomical areas.

I thought this was a site for grown-ups. Boobies is obscene. Oh. Em. Effing. Gee.

Apparently you are not allowed to use the words tits or boobies if you are referring to birds that are called, legitmately, as tits and boobies. But if you are referring to female genatalia, such as breasts, as a eupemism it’s a OK.

@Kardamom Well, that stupid question of mine is just to check the legitimacy of this.

Not even a NSFW tag. Wonder if the kids bother to…

I guess I’d better inform my uncle and my school-mate not to attempt to join Fluther, lest they be deemed obscene, because of their respective names, Dick. My school mate, I think his study of course was the law, maybe I should check that again, wonder what he might have to say about this subject.

I wonder what would happen if someone asked, “Has anyone seen Mike Hawk or Mike Hunt?”.

Baaahahahaha.

We have a member called @Michael_Huntington.

@Seek As I mentioned, this is not about the site being for grown-ups. It’s about keeping the main pages of Fluther SFW so that Fluther does not get blocked from people’s computers and so that users do not get in trouble. Having question titles remain SFW has been a source of multiple conversations in the past (before I was a mod). I am currently reading over as many of those as I can find to see if I can find a consensus on what terminology is allowed/not allowed. When I did my mod training with Auggie, slang words such as “tit”, “boobie”, etc were not allowed in question titles. Do we catch every instance that comes up? No, we don’t, just as we miss other things. This is why we continue to ask users to flag things that do not meet our guidelines.

I look forward to the list of approved genital euphemisms, so we can all reach a consensus of what terminology is allowed, and avoid flagging any animal names, body parts, and former Vice-Presidents we may come across.

@Seek In reading over past questions about this same issue and seeing requests for such a list, the fact that there is no current list makes me believe that it may not be possible to come up with a list that includes everything. I know that isn’t what anyone wants to here, but it seems to be the realistic answer given the past discussions and requests on this topic.

This is not to say that questions can’t move forward, just that we have to be sure question titles are SFW. If they aren’t, we will help users come up with ways to make them SFW (as had been done in the past). There have been questions that started out with slang terms and ended up using terms like female genitalia or female anatomy. Then, in the details, the user is able to use whatever term they like to describe what they are talking about.

Are we allowed to mention Dick Cheney in questions? How about Who Killed Cock Robin?

This truly is absurd. This question is going back for editing because of the name Dick? Come on.

Cock robin is dead? Oh dear God say it’s not so.

@dappled_leaves – Actually, so far, no. This question was written because two questions of Kardamom’s which mentioned a bird called a “tit” were pushed back for editing as “obscene”.

It’s a bizarre double-standard that this one, containing the word “dick”, has not.

@Seek Now it’s getting hard to understand. So all the “obsence” words can’t be used unless they are in a person’s name?

@Seek This one was left up for the time being solely so that we, the mod team, had a chance to address the issue publicly rather than just sending it for editing and making the issue worse. Since multiple users want to know what’s going on, we figured it was best to address the issue directly rather than trying to do it solely through PMs with Kardamom.

So the answer is no, one cannot mention the name “Dick” in any question title on Fluther.

How about “Cock”? Can I ask who killed Cock Robin after all? No?

Is “breast” acceptable? How about “coitus”? Or “orgasm”? “Nipple?” I know Facebook is all over nipplegate.

This is important. We need to know which words we are not allowed to use. What exactly do current Fluther laws consider to be “obscene”?

It’s ridiculous. As someone else said, no one can ask a question about Dick Cheney? You’ve got to be kidding.

@Seaofclouds Yeah! Like @Seek said. If “breast” isn’t acceptable and NSFW questions need a [NSFW] tag, then why can this question survive?

^ Ugh, @Mimishu1995 – That guy’s a real winner, isn’t he? No wonder he can’t get a girlfriend.

@Seek I think so. Maybe he only uses his appearance as an excuse ~

Not that I want to, but are we able to discuss naughty penis pictures posted by Anthony Wiener?

Seriously, my original question, which got removed, because the mods deemed it “too obscene” was about 2 kinds of of birds, which are legitimately called tits and boobies. Look ‘em up people, they won’t scare your kids or your livestock.

You can discuss anything you want. The issue is only with the way you word the actual question title.

In regards to the specific proper names, I am going to talk to the mod team about this one. I have not been able to find a specific incidence saying one way or another on the names. It doesn’t seem to have come up until now. Once we are able to talk and do some more digging, we will answer that question for everyone.

@Mimishu1995 In regards to that specific question, I don’t have a good answer for why it didn’t get sent back. We miss things sometimes, we are human. I was actively participating in that question, so I was unable to mod it as we have a rule that we don’t mod questions we are actively participating in.

@Kardamom Once again, we are not disputing that the birds are called tits and boobies. Just stating that the guidelines require question titles to be safe for work and those terms are commonly caught by work filters for sexual content and are thus not safe for work. You can say tits and boobies as much as you want in the details and responses. It is just the title we want to keep SFW due to them being listed on the main pages of Fluther. This is for the references to breasts as well as your reference to the birds.

Now I must go get some sleep as my alarm will be going off in 4 hours. Good night everyone.

So I will never know Who is your favorite Dick?

These men should be offended that we cannot honor them in a title.

The boobie mod is also absurd.

^ Actually, I’m pretty sure that was a question not too long ago.

I think the moderation used to be a lot more even because everything controversial was kicked back to Auggie and she held the standards in her own mind. Common sense prevailed. Now we have a bunch of independent moderators doing the best they can with the time available. I imagine that some prude flagged the original question, and at face value, modding it seemed reasonable.

As for dick and Dick, I think capitalization would have been a big clue, but now that it’s come up, that tip is sure to be abused.

It could be useful to look at the primary dictionary definition of tits and boobies. If the word is used in its primary dictionary form, and that is not considered ‘vulgar’, then let the question stand? I mean, why be a dick about it?

Also known as common sense. Surely even the work censors can deal with that?

Yes, common sense would be a useful tool. Uh-oh, I just said tool. Guess that’s going to get modded too.

@ibstubro That’s a pretty wise way of thinking. The dictionary rules!

But workplace censors can’t deal with it. They only know the word “tit” has been used, they can’t tell if its in context of birds or nudity. And that can be enough to get someone fired from work.
Yes it would be great if we could use common sense but because the majority of corporate employers dont, we can’t either.

Using Fluther on the clock may be enough to get someone disciplined at work, tits or no tits. Boobies is just too juvenile to take seriously.

At my company, no one is allowed to use the computer for personal use, you can’t look at your personal e-mail or any other site that is not being used for the business of the company. If everyone used this ideal, the boobies would never be seen. Also, a friend of mine is a real ornithologist, he’s heard these jokes a million times, how in the world could he work, if not using the terms tits and boobies for actual specimens of work? He’s not fiddling around on Fluther either.

@ibstubro ” I imagine that some prude flagged the original question, and at face value, modding it seemed reasonable.”

This is kind of how I view it also. The reaction of the mods often seems to be “Well, the Guidelines Say, so we won’t be having any of this!” Whereas Auggie was able to step back and recognize why the guidelines exist, and interpret a flag in that context.

She also had a sense of humour.

@dappled_leaves Exactly!

@Kardamom Not everyone has the same rules for computer usage at work. Also, not every employer has filters in place or the same filters in place. It is impossible for us to meet all of those areas, so we go by what the founders put in place and that is requiring titles be safe for work.

@dappled_leaves I actually spoke to Auggie about this last night and she agreed with the moderation. Once again, the safe for work titles is not about context, strictly about the terms used because filters do not recognize context. While we can interpret the context, the work filters cannot and we do not want Fluther to be blocked and we don’t want users to lose their jobs.

Context has to be taken into consideration. If someone else asked a question and they worded it slightly different, such as “Has anyone ever seen the rare bird called a Boobie?” still has the word boobie in it, but the context is slightly different. I’m guessing that that question would be allowed, or is it now a policy that the word boobie is completely banned, no matter what context it is being used?

This is über confusing to me because I have actually seen questions kicked back to users who were asked to change words such as intercourse or coutis to euphemisms because the actual name of the act was considered NSFW. I have seen questions pulled for the word penis in the title and the user asked to replace it with a euphemism such as danglybits! Have the rules changed so that now the actual name for the event or body part is the way to go? Here is where I will cop to being a former mod and saying that I have first hand knowledge of questions being pulled for words such as vagina in the title.

In all honesty, it is absolutely ludicrous to moderate questions saying the title is NSFW because it is about blue footed boobies, brushtits, Dick Freaking Cheney, @Kardamom‘s Uncle Dick, or my Aunt Flo. If the filters at workplaces are the issue, the employees need to take responsibility for where they are surfing, it is not up to Fluther to pick out every single word in a title that someone might deem offensive.

There is a line of decency that Fluther’s creators decided they do not want their site to cross. It isn’t a blurry line unless the mods become over zealous in their enforcement – which they seem to be in this case.

I guess the bottom line is that if you want to ask a question about your uncle Dick Johnson, you had better be cock sure his name isn’t in the question title.

Anyone who ever suggests to me that I use ’‘danglybits’’ as a replacement for penis or ballsack or what have you deserves to be vigorously slapped. Same for the word vajayjay. I’m not fucking four years old. and young kids shouldn’t be on here, either

Sorry. Not related, but I learned something. Didn’t know actual words were asked to be replaced by slang…now I am confused as well. :/

From the mods point of view, it is perfectly reasonable to censor certain words in the Titles of Questions.
After hearing the reasons why, it is also commendable that they continue to do so.

Apparently it’s OK to use the word balls in the title of a question. There’s some balls flying as we speak and the Q is still up.

@Symbeline actually I believe the preferred term is sugar bowl not vajayjay.

I’ve also heard ’‘baby hole’’.

@Symbeline I really don’t want to be in a community where “baby hole” is the only acceptable way to say vagina. Fuck that.

Word up.

Baby hole? Oh my. How old are we again?

Damnit yall, I’m not suggesting we use baby hole. Or vajayjay. Not only am I saying those are terms I’ve heard, but I thought I made my hatred of such trite shit rather clear. :)

I’m wondering if it’s OK for me to post a question regarding Cock a Leekie Soup

Is it OK to refer to a woman’s baby hole as the house of V?

@Kardamom I believe you can post the question as long as you refer to the dish In question as Rooster a Leekie Soup or Slang Term for the Male Sex Organ a Leekie Soup. Also, I hereby nominate House of V (with caps) as the official Fluther term for the baby hole.

I’m sad to realize that this means the famed and beloved vagina nose question could never be asked again.

Let us all have a moment of pregnant pause for Vagina Nose.

I think Ben might be up to his eyeballs in a baby hole right now but it would be lovely to have some clarification from our founders at this point.

I suspect many people are surfing far more profane sites at work and risking their own employment futures.

The question was playfully tongue in cheek (can I say tongue in cheek?) and would not be the same fun if those words weren’t in the title.

I do understand the mods’ reasoning but this seems a bit over the top (can I say over the top?).

<raps @janbb‘s knuckles for saying “tongue in cheek”>

@dappled_leaves Oh – but it felt so good.

I think it’s ok as long as you don’t mention what’s under the top.

But I’m not sure. We still haven’t tackled that list of breast euphemisms.

@janbb My guess is that it depends on which cheeks your tongue is in.

@dappled_leaves Great. There went the vagina nose question, into the moderation hole. Hopefully it won’t get the axe this long after.
Don’t point out any other wonderful gems on this thread!

@GloPro I don’t think questions are retrospectively modded off.

Well, the word would still be on everybody’s work screen right now. Let’s hope old vaginas are acceptable to the filters.

HOLD THE MUTHAFUCKIN’ PHONE..

I found the Dicktionary

@Seek Hah. I don’t know if there’s a word in the English language that doesn’t turn up on that list somewhere.

This is getting nowhere. So if I want to ask a question about a certain Dick Cheney, I have to refer to him as “someone famous whole last name is Cheney” in the question title?

If you’re surfing the net from work and you know your workplace has a filter that will get upset by the word tit/booby or dick, perhaps you should avoid surfing at work. A tit is a bird, a booby is a bird and Dicks are usually men (take that anyway you like).

@Mimishu1995 I think @funkdaddy explained that very well in this post.

It was always my understanding that designating a question (NSFW) was a red flag to keep people from opening questions with questionable content.

Perhaps the original question about tits and boobies should have been designated ”(possibly NSFW?)” I can certainly see where there was a point that a work censor would pick it up, especially containing the trifecta of ”boobies, tit’s and ass”. I can definitely see pushing this back. It really isn’t suitable for any workplace with a censor.

Then again, I honestly don’t know how the work censors function. If we’re allowed to say shit and fuck in discussion, then how is it the censors aren’t picking that up?

^ Your first link goes to finance.yahoo.com/

Sorry, different question, @Seek. Thanks!

original (albeit apparently modified) question.

Same link twice. In searching, I see that the singular “tit” has only been allowed in a question once, and “tits”, never. Same with “boob” and “boobies”.

I also asked a question about work censors, because understanding them seems to be at the heart of the controversy.

@ibstubro ” If we’re allowed to say shit and fuck in discussion, then how is it the censors aren’t picking that up?”

This is exactly what I keep asking, and I haven’t yet had a response.

Apparently these mysterious censors only read question titles, not the details or responses.

@GloPro They are indeed mysterious! Able to discern title words from words in responses… yet also not able to tell that “vagina” and “baby hole” are talking about the same thing.

@GloPro, the question title is singled out for “bad words” because it shows up without clicking on the question, on the front page of the site. The NSFW tag is meant to prevent people from clicking on a question that might be racy or inappropriate for some other reason. When the person made the choice to click on a question despite the NSFW tag, they should expect to see NSFW content, that is why the description isn’t modded for having bad words or real words for grown up topics. That being said, if a question isn’t tagged as NSFW in the title and the description is full of swearing, vivid sexual descriptions, or something else inappropriate for work, it is typically pushed back to the OP for addition of NSFW in the title.

I always thought the push to use euphamisms in the title was to keep horrifying words such as breast and testicles off the front page. I think when we are modding questions for having euphemisms in the title, even if they aren’t describing something “dirty” there is an issue.

@Earthbound_Misfit If you’re surfing the net from work and you know your workplace has a filter that will get upset by the word tit/booby or dick, perhaps you should avoid surfing at work. I imagine most companies don’t inform employees about all of the details of their computer filters. Some people may not be aware of the filters being in place.

@ibstubro If we’re allowed to say shit and fuck in discussion, then how is it the censors aren’t picking that up? The filters will still pick up the content in the discussion. Fluther requires the question titles to be safe for work because users do not have a choice about what shows up on the main pages of Fluther. If a users then chooses to access content that may not be safe for work, it is by their choice. Does that help explain why we want the question titles safe for work, but not the details/responses?

@FlyingWolf The problem with the euphemisms in the case was that although they weren’t meant to be describing something dirty, work filters cannot tell the difference. That is the problem we are facing and discussing at this time. We are still trying to get specific information regarding which words filters pick up and don’t pick up. That’s just a bit harder to get access to because the publishers of the filters don’t readily give that information to just anyone.

@Seaofclouds Thanks for your patience in clarifying things. It’s just a shame that dome of the playfulness can’t be used but I understand it a bit more.

Does that help explain why we want the question titles safe for work, but not the details/responses?

Considering how many spur-of-the-moment pancake parties we’ve had in random threads that were clearly NOT marked, not really.

Relevant

@Seaofclouds I tend to disagree with the assertion that the word dick is going to set off internet alarms at work. I honestly think that with people such as Dick Cheney being part of the culture, it is highly unlikely that censors at work are going to take note every time “booby” or “dick” appears. If they were searched concurrently a red flag might be raised. Either way though, the disallowing of words such as these in question titles (or even usernames) is clearly a new development. This leads me to wonder what caused the change.

I searched Fluther, and there was one incident of “tit” in a question title, none with “tit’s”.
There were incidences of “boob”, none for “boobies”.
There were incidences of “Dick” referring to a person, none I saw referring to a male organ.

Presumably we should be able to post:

“Should Dick feel like such a boob, mistaking a tit for a nuthatch?”

Details: “I was out birdwatching with my Uncle Dick the other day, and he mistook a tit for a nuthatch. He was just devastated! The rest of the afternoon, he kept murmuring, ‘I feel like such a boob!’
Do you find this to be a common mistake, or was he really find of acting like a boob?”

Can we use the correct terminology for a “female dog?”

More power to the Dicks!

@jca

Can we use the correct terminology for a “female dog?”

No- and we have to call their undesirable male offspring “bad puppies”!

Why bitch when you can search, @jca?

I don’t know the chronology. Auggie Auggie, all out’s in free!

22 people with “bitch” in their name. One must assume it has the go-ahead, since there’s no way to edit out who wrote a question.

If you click on each user with “bitch” in their name you’ll see that most of them have either been banned or deleted their account. I’m assuming they were banned. The word has never been acceptable as a username. Don’t forget, the mods do not see everything, so the names that are still there were most likely overlooked.

I’m really surprised by all of this commotion. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, really. We aren’t forced to be here. I admire @Seaofclouds for her patience and for taking the time to thoroughly answer questions for anyone who doesn’t understand the rules here. I’m sure she’d rather be spending what little free time she has with her family.

The tits and boobies question was cute, but you can’t tell me you weren’t expecting some NSFW answers with the way you worded the Q. I’m sure there was a way to word the question if you were honestly looking for answers that only pertained to birds.

People who use “bitch” in their username tend to act accordingly.

It’s funny because people will defend their use of bitch and say “it’s a female dog” but that’s not the typical use of it and everyone knows it.

Someone didn’t like me very much, so they created the account “jonsblondsabitch.” The account was banned before I could see what trouble they caused. The name turned up in search right next to my name and I asked Auggie if there was anything they could do about it. She talked to Ben and they removed the username. It’s gone for good.

Some people are so damned classy.

@jonsblond: Wow. I’ll be checking from time to time to see if such has been done to me. The things people think of.

How can anyone not love @jonsblond? There is no accounting for taste.

@jca I’ll do a search for “Mimishu1995isadick” right now ~

[Mod says] The mod team, with input from Ben and Auggie, have come to the following conclusion regarding the SFW question titles:

Should we allow the correct anatomical terms (penis, breasts, vagina)?
Yes (assuming the rest of the question is not inappropriate). This is the preferred terminology rather than euphemisms.

Should words that have multiple meanings be based on the context, such as tits (the bird)?
Only if the non-vulgar context is made clear. (No: Are these tits? Yes: Why are the migration patterns of adult, white-feathered tits east instead of south?). This is the advantage of allowing a mod to interpret context. So I (Ben) say allowed, but must be made clear to be non-vulgar. We will be using context clues from the title, the details, and the topics.

Should proper names, like Dick Cheney, be allowed?
Yes.

Questions that may/do contain NSFW content will still require the NSFW tag as well and the question title must be SFW.

We hope this clears up any confusion in regards to the recent events. If anyone has any questions, please let us know.

That’s bitchin’.

Loud and clear. Good work – mod team and Founder and Auggie!

@Seaofclouds Thanks so much for opening up the discussion and coming up with some pretty clear cut answers!