Care to help the mods make a list of words that are unacceptable in a question title?

Isn’t this pretty much a duplicate of your meta question?

[Mod says]: Moved to meta.

@syz No, I was told by the mods that they need to make a list of words that are unacceptable to use in the title of a question.

My other question asked specifically if it were OK to use the word/name Dick in a title question. I figured it would be better to have the complete list, rather than me having to ask a hundred plus questions about whether one word or another is acceptable or if it’s acceptable in a certain context, or whether certain words are never allowed.

v v This will be interesting!

Scoundrel
Bounder
Cad
Buggerlugs

Here are some that I think we agree can’t be in the titles.

General swear words;
Fuck
Shit
Bitch
Ass (not sure about this one, but probably)
Various others.

Sexual Euphemisms, that at least need a NSFW tag;
Cock
Cunt
Tits
As for the actual words such as penis, vagina, testicles, they might also need a NSFW. Not sure about things like breasts or balls. Personally though, I would not outlaw the actual legitimate words for things, although the NSFW is acceptable.

Racist and discriminatory stuff;
Stuff like faggot or nigger, I don’t think I need to make a list of these, plus they’re not allowed anywhere on the site, as far as I know, unless used in a serious discussion that say, describes the origins of said words for example. (or how I am naming them as words to not use, strangely enough)

In the spirit of how this question came to be, personally I don’t consider words like tits or boobies offending. They’re slangs, not swear words.

I’m sure there’s tons of others, but if a lexicon is to be made of what we shouldn’t use, it might be a bit more difficult than I imagine. Where do we draw the line between swearing and slang? What words should have a NSFW tag, and why? Say if you ask about homosexuals. Does that need a NSFW tag because it has the word sex in it? What about the word gay itself? Is that considered offensive? Lesbian? Terms, slangs, swearing…some are obvious, others, not as much.

The warning NSFW covers it adequately. Every time something is the least bit restricted around here we lose more people—some of them quite valuable, intelligent contributors.

if this is a list made up of words in the title question that require the NSFW tag, I’m all for it, but otherwise, stop with the restrictions.

That being said, the Reclinated Blueballed Cuntmuffineater should never be mentioned in Questions or Postings under any circumstances. It might offend the men.

Just to clarify the issue @Kardamom is asking about. Fluther guidelines require question titles to be safe for work. That means, using a NSFW tag alone is not the issue. The issue is including words in the title that would get caught up in work filters. It is not about what we consider obscene on a personal level, it is strictly about work filters.

We have been trying to do some research on which words and phrases these filters catch, but the makers of these filters do not openly give out that information (from what I’ve been able to find so far), probably to avoid people trying to avoid using the words as we are trying to do.

@Seaofclouds Words in titles is indeed what I was on about, hence why I picked the most known and common ones I could think of.

As I understand it (I may be wrong), the point is to avoid specific trigger words that will alert a program on a business computer that will notify powers-that-be that unauthorized, non-work related things are happening on that device (mostly watching porn on company time).

Is there anyone here that either programs for businesses or decodes for the business what those words are? That might streamline the process.

@Symbeline I just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were looking at words that work filters would catch, not words that we personally feel are obscene. I appreciate your list. The mod team is actively discussing this issue and this thread will help us see what the users think and give us some terms that we may not even think about.

I have the perfect solution, at least for tits, boobs & balls.
Simply replace with the word globes & the job’s a good un.
Contact ucme@globalsolutions.com

Here are some NSFW sexual words from off the top of my head:
penis
vagina
clitoris
dick
sex
pubic
tit
boob
breast
ta ta
hoo ha
pussy
cock
dingdong
wanker
uterus
vulva
crotch
testicle
testis
balls
ass
anal
intercourse
fuck
making whoopie
knocking boots
shag
boner
oral
cum
sperm
vas deferens
blowjob
orgasm
coitus
phallus
fellatio
erection
period
c*nt
badonkadonk
hump
ejculation
menstruation
threesome
menage a trois
three-way
penetration
sodomy
mating
bitch
masturbation
dildo
fleshlight
horny
arousal
ovary
g spot
copulation
nookie

@Seaofclouds Yeah I was just giving myself examples in my head; for example if somebody really wanted to know where the word ’‘faggot’’ originates from, then they probably shouldn’t say the word itself in the title. And I asked that very question before, without having the word in the title, just in the details, so it worked out. (the question remained)

@canidmajor I’m guessing a lot of this wouldn’t be an issue if, while at work, people actually fucking worked, instead of messing about on Fluther.

@dxs…& a partridge in a pear tree.

lol

So, uh, why do these triggers that we keep hearing about only affect titles and not details, or more to the point, responses? Any thread will eventually contain a swear word… certainly if @ucme has anything to say about it.

So browsing Disneyfied titles does no one any good. If people are going to Fluther at work, they are risking tripping some kind of swear flag, regardless of how careful they are at choosing title links to click.

Now I understand. This is something practical, rather than a sensibilities-driven effort. I never had time to do social stuff when I was working, so I was barely aware of how censorship or filtering was done.

Anyway, I think there are a couple of IT guys here that could get hold of a list from the programs they use at work. If any of you know who they are, we should send them an invitation to this question.

@dappled_leaves Err, exsqueeze me, baking powder, my mouth is so clean fairies fly out when I burp.

@ucme Oh no, they got to you, too!

@dappled_leaves The question titles appear on the main screens of Fluther. The users have no control and no idea of what’s there when they first sign in. So, having the questions SFW helps protect them when on the main pages of Fluther. The content being in the details and responses is not seen on the main pages. It is only when a user chooses to access that content that it is on their screen. At that point, it is their choosing and their responsibility. They are the ones making the decision at that point. If a question is worded with safe words, but seems inappropriate, they can choose to avoid accessing the content until they are no longer at work and avoid having the filters block Fluther or notifying their employer that they are accessing such content. Does that make sense?

@Seaofclouds Frankly, no. Why would anyone choose to Fluther at work and only browse titles, never clicking on questions? And further, why would Fluther cater to people who do that, instead of to the community that is actually participating?

This still doesn’t answer the question about whether it’s acceptable to use tits and boobies in the title when they are specifically asking a question about birds, not breasts.

Example: My friend is an ornithologist, he says that Boobies are found in the Galapagos Islands. Has anyone ever seen one of these magnificent birds?

^^ Is that an unacceptable question?

I realize that my original question was not worded that way, but if the question was actually read, there was nothing obscene about the way the words were used.

@dappled_leaves I’m not saying people only browse titles, I’m saying they can avoid questions that would flag their work filters by having the question titles be safe for work and the not safe for work content inside the question. As for why cater to that… well because the founders made the rule that question titles must be safe for work.

@Kardamom As of right now, boobies and tits would not be allowed because they would get caught in the filters. The filters do not differentiate words based on the context, so the filters would not know if you are talking about birds or breasts. As I have said though, the mod team is actively discussing this and working toward getting rid of the confusion. As soon as we come up with a final answer, you will all know.

Balls, has not made the list! Yay! We can still use balls in the title of a Q. Or at least today we can.

@Seaofclouds Hmm. Your previous response made it sound as if you understood my question, but this one makes it sound like we’re back at square one.

My point: after one clicks on a totally safe for work question, one will very, very frequently be confronted by not safe for work content within the question, usually in the responses. Therefore, the only way that a safe for work question “saves” a user from filters is if they only browse titles and never click on anything.

The policy is pointless.

@Kardamom Really. Swedish meat balls? All the other meat balls, matzah balls. You would be the first offender!

I love Swedish meatballs, and that has nothing to do with a Viking obsession. I want to learn how to make them.

@dappled_leaves That is were the NSFW tag comes in to play.

@Seaofclouds We’re supposed to put NSFW tags on questions in which someone might write “tits” in a response? Please.

@Symbeline The real deal with a genuine Swedish cream sauce recipe

@dappled_leaves This is not something new. Here are a few discussions about the NSFW tag and guidelines.

@Seaofclouds You haven’t understood what I’ve said. I am not in any way arguing against the use of the NSFW tag.

I think I do understand what you are saying. You are referring to having to use a NSFW tag on a question that is not meant as NSFW, but gets NSFW responses. There have been times when users were asked to add NSFW tags to their questions because the discussion took a NSFW turn, even though it wasn’t intended. So, in that instance, yes, sometimes users are asked to use a NSFW tag because of the responses of the users. It’s rarely an issue, but it has come up before. We do not ask users to add a NSFW tag just because someone, usually joking around, throws out a “tits”, “boobs”, or whatever other phrase.

Maybe the simplified explanations are causing the discomfort here? This really isn’t personal, no one is being judged, it’s a decision made a long time ago by the founders to try to keep the site available to folks and keep it from drawing the wrong kind of attention.

Most businesses set up their filters by URL first, those sites just can’t be reached at all. Then they use keywords to flag user traffic to sites… so a “dumb” list of keywords are generally used to alert admins that someone is (probably) off topic with their web browsing and they then add new sites to the list that can’t be reached.

That’s why tits and boobies are exactly the sort of terms that would be set up to throw alerts. People aren’t likely to be looking for birds in most jobs, but will possibly be checking sites where tits and boobies might be talked about. It’s kind of on the fringe of acceptable. Those are the sites that get filtered. We don’t want fluther filtered, so this policy is in place.

“Dick” isn’t a problem because it would cause too many false positives so wouldn’t be in most lists. The legitimate uses of “Dick” as a term outnumber what you’re going to catch by flagging it in a business setting. The same isn’t true of tits and boobies, which are used probably 100x as much to refer to breasts as birds. “Breasts” also isn’t a good keyword because of it’s legitimate use in clinical settings or for descriptions. Again the false positive outnumber the sites that should be flagged.

you are not being judged, nor is your content, they’re making it easy for people to use the site as a decision that affects everyone who uses the site

Put another way, take a site like thechive.com. Pretty much all they talk about is boobs, beer, butts, clickbait, and jokes. Do a search on their home page for tits, boobs, ass, anything that might alert a machine that you’re on a site you shouldn’t be. It’s not there. They do get creative to try and get the same idea across without using those terms specifically. (“Sideboob”, “underboob”, etc. which don’t fit the keyword model) They are within the 500 top sites in the US (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thechive.com) and I can pretty much guarantee a good amount of that traffic comes form people at work. They keep it clean so they are still an option for those people.

So, as a rule, the mods here try to keep titles clean from those types of words. It’s not 100% effective and doesn’t need to be, but if one organization adds fluther.com to the blocked list each time, then we lose users each time, and that’s less people here.

Would you really rather have the smaller population and mods who look at intent, or simply reword your questions so as to not affect other people’s access? Which seems like a fair and democratic solution?

That’s the choice fluther has, and they’ve made a decision to try and keep those filterable words out of pages that are pulled up automatically when you visit fluther.com.

If you have a better system for running a site that takes those concerns into account, I’m sure everyone is only interested in a happy and accessible community. I know I’d love to hear a productive solution as well because this is a problem for any site that wants to be available to the majority of folks while allowing users to generate content.

^ GA.

@Espiritus_Corvus

Don’t make me comment on where you got the Swedish cream from.

Isn’t a list rather a silly waste of time?

@stanleybmanly I think so, but it’s necessary sometimes.

And I suggest putting all those words on the guideline, along with the usage of the NSFW tag. I don’t want something like this to happen again.

@dxs You spelled everything out except for cunt. Why?

Really? The mods can’t work out which words are offensive and which ones aren’t? It’s surely not just about words but about context? Do the mods really need a list? If you put up a list of words users aren’t supposed to include in titles and they find an offensive word that’s not on the list, that opens the door for people to say ‘It’s not on the list’ it should be allowed to stay. Seems like a recipe for ongoing discontent and idiocy.

@Earthbound_Misfit It’s surely not just about words but about context?

Actually, if you read these threads you will see it has nothing to do with context but is all about words in the title being spotted by workplace programs looking for certain words regardless of context.

My workplace has such monitoring and it is very rare that I get a warning of inappropriate content. I can then choose to go ahead or not.

@mimishu The trouble with a list is that it is never complete. Nothing serves to illustrate this better than the endless deluge of purient words associated with sex and the anatomical “parts” involved. The mods have the unfortunate job of censoring stuff that winds up posted here, but I can guarantee that no matter the eventual length of the list, it will always be possible to type up tasteless offensive questions. Notice in the example you give that there is not one “naughty” word in the entire question.

@Earthbound_Misfit I’m sure not all workplaces have the same monitoring condition like your…

@Mimishu1995, I don’t think it’s the moderator’s role to try to censor any words that might possibly be caught up in workplace monitoring software. If you work for a company that has very strict rules about what you can look at during work hours then you need to moderate your own internet use at work. Reading a newspaper is going to bring you into contact with words like dick, fanny, boobs, tits etc.

Certainly members should use common sense and decency when writing question titles and the mods are quite within their rights to ask people to tone down the wording of questions that could be seen as offensive by some members. However, the mods also need to use common sense. As @stanleybmanly has said here and I said somewhere else, there will always be another word that can be construed as offensive that won’t be on ‘the list’.

Not to mention that contravention of ‘the list’ then requires policing. What do we do with members who continue to purposefully or accidentally include words on ‘the list’ in their question titles? Should they be banned?

Did “boinking” already make the list?

I’m curious about:

ta-tas

family jewels

lady parts

slits

ying-yang

ding-a-ling

brown hole

fisting

rimming

gazongas

knockers

willy

whacking off

tosser (my favorite British, potentially naughty word)

humping

patootie

wanker

chicken choker

fwap

Delores

bumpin’ uglies

grinding

jumping bones

eating out (I’d really hate for this term to be put on the list, for obvious reasons)

I don’t think words that are used as slang but mean something else in their legitimate definition, such as ball or grinding would make the list, nor do I think non American terms, like ’‘wanker’’ or ’‘tosser’’ would get caught by any list that detects bad words.
I know tits and boobies are birds, but the majority of people have probably heard those as breast slangs long before they knew it was birds, so I guess that’s why those aren’t accepted.

@Kardamom
The question is whether words are commonly used in a way that could be considered offensive. @funkdaddy explained that really well above…and @PhiNotPi did on another thread, too (here).

Your bird question was funny precisely because it used terminology usually not approved of in, say, church. It makes perfect sense for the filters to pick up “tit” and “boobie”. “Eating out”, on the other hand, would flag a multitude of “harmless” websites.

So I can’t ask, “Where’s your favorite place to eat out?” without causing a shirt storm?

@Kardamom
I think you must have misunderstood my post. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.

I’m saying that filters wouldn’t pick up on “eating out”, because that term is used in its PG-rated sense very frequently – as opposed to “boobies”.

Oh, OK, that makes sense (or since, if you read the Q about people pronounce words differently LOL)

@Kardamom :D

[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.

Yay! Thanks @Seaofclouds for having the discussion and giving us the answers. The straight poop as it were : )