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[Zaaps1]

Recently, a new type of online chat filter is being developed. Our current filters block us from saying websites, swear words, and other things. I have nothing against the current filter except that it is a bit too strict. But lets not go that way for now.

 

 

 

This new filter blocks out STUPID COMMENTS. Does this mean no more, "phree st00f pl0x?". I'm sure many of you out there out love this in RS. The Filter detects comments that are unintelligable. Check out the article, quoted from Fortune Magazine and cnnmoney.com (It's the same article). (Mods, if I am not allowed to quote this due to legal reasons, feel free to delete)

 

 

 

 

OMG!!! The end of online stupidity?

 

Finally, software developers are building a filter that blocks unintelligible comments, writes Fortune's Josh Quittner.

 

By Josh Quittner, Fortune executive editor

 

November 7 2007: 12:17 PM EST

 

 

 

It's a serious problem. Fools and bandwidth hogs have a way of driving traffic away from the most successful online destinations, a phenomenon that could ruin the emerging social networks and user-generated aggregators like Digg.

 

 

 

But there's still hope for intelligent life on the Internet. A team of software developers is hard at work on a "stupid filter" that promises to do to idiotic online comments what a spam filter does to junk and unwanted e-mail: put it in a place where it can't hurt anyone anymore.

 

Blackberry autism: a pandemic

 

 

 

That's the mission, anyway, of the cadre of techies toiling under the leadership of Gabriel Ortiz, a 27-year-old systems administrator in Albuquerque. Ortiz's team is readying a free, open-source version they hope to release by year's end and make available as a standard plug-in on the popular Firefox browser by early next year.

 

 

 

How does it work? Say a user wants to post a really, really dumb comment on, for example, cnnmoney.com, where some of you might be reading this now.

 

 

 

If cnnmoney had the filter installed on its servers, it would intercept the comment just before it was published and flash a little alert at the author that reads: "This comment is more or less unintelligible. Please try to restate it."

 

 

 

The writer would get another crack at it, and another, until at last he was able to muster a few words of intelligence, or in frustration wandered off to inflict those LOL!!!!!s and OMG!!!!s on some more tolerant site.

 

 

 

From a programming standpoint, not to mention a social one, building a piece of software that can separate intellectual wheat from chaff is tricky; it's far more difficult than building a spam filter, says Ortiz. That's because spam filters tend to do relatively simple pattern matching, searching e-mail for words that pop up frequently in junk mail.

 

 

 

Your spam filter sees [Censored by poster. Go to original article if you wish to see it. This forum supposable G-Rated] and without rolling its eyes flicks the offending missive into the junk folder, where it can be deleted along with the rest of its filthy brethren.

 

 

 

But thanks in part to irony and its sneering cousin, sarcasm, stupidity is tougher to spot. "Smart people are often ironic," says Ortiz, noting that irony, to a computer anyway, can sound stupid. Writers who are otherwise intelligent will intentionally misspell words or break the ironclad rules of grammar to make a point.

 

 

 

The stupid-filter team is trying to accommodate this behavior with a variety of rules of thumb. For instance, Ortiz, who studied linguistics as an undergrad, recently noticed a pattern in the way some writers use letter repetition. The clueless tend to repeat consonants: "This video is amazinggggg!!!" By comparison, says Ortiz, "when you repeat a vowel, you're being sarcastic -- 'Yeaaaaaah.' We'll be using several different methods to try to mediate this."

 

 

 

The first line of defense is context -- using well-established markers of standard English to judge a piece of writing. For instance, if the rest of the sentences in a comment are grammatical, and difficult words are spelled properly -- Ortiz mentioned "zucchini," which I had to look up -- the message ought to get by the filter. If the rest of the comment is unintelligible, it will be screened.

 

 

 

Perhaps the most interesting -- and ironic -- aspect of the project is the way Ortiz's team is tapping into the wisdom of crowds to debug its filter. They are encouraging readers to visit their site, http://stupidfilter.org/main/, where you can help them rate on a scale of one to five a selection of potentially dumb posts culled from -- where else? -- YouTube.

 

 

 

Ortiz has clearly hit a nerve. Offers of help have been rolling in from all over the world ever since the project was unveiled. He thinks there might even be a business in it, since staying current with pop culture and maintaining the corpus of stupidity is more or less a full-time job. To which I'd add, Yeaaaaaah.

 

 

 

From:

 

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ... /index.htm

 

 

 

Well! What do you think about it? My question to the Tip.It community is, What do you make of this new filter (still under development)? And would you like having such a filter on Tip.It, RSOF, or in-game? (Putting technical barriers aside. Let's not go to "This will be too hard to add in-game". Let Jagex work that out if they choose to accept the filter)

 

 

 

I say I'd love such a filter in-game. Obviously, it is not made to be used in-game, more on forums such as these. But if there is a way to add it, I'd love it. After all, if you are simply being sarcastic or silly, the developers understand. And are working to ways around it (Vowel and Consentant thing).

 

 

 

Discuss.

 

 

 

BTW: Be sure to visit the site mentioned (http://www.stupidfilter.org) to check up on development. It is .org, not .com, don't you hate it when they do that? I have tested all sites mentioned in my post. None are harmful to my knowledge. I do not work for any sort of company trying to endorse this product.

[the_god_of_soup]

That seems interesting, I wonder what it would be like in a world without stupid comments :thumbsup: .

 

 

 

Edite: First post \ .

[Mayjest]

That. Is. Genius!

 

 

 

I want one of those! Not entirely sure where I'd put it, as it's not like I own a message board, but I want one!

 

 

 

Only thing is, if it's gonna be a firefox extension, how is it gonna help? Stupid people aren't gonna put the extension on their browsers, as it's unlikely that stupid people a) use firefox, and B) know what firefox extensions are.

 

 

 

However, once it's done, it shouldn't be too much work for Jagex to work out a way of applying it to RuneScape. Well, ok, it might be a lot, but it won't be impossible.

[Zaaps1]

Read over my post, deleted a few things I found irrevelevant.

[qeltar]

z0mg! i like pie.

[Skill_Caster]

Oh wow. Literally, this is a brilliant idea 0_o. No pun intended.

[Pan_Nx]

Pretty nice idea :)

[purfishx]

I wonder how Runescape would be if this was implemented?

[Moonshadow]

I wonder how Runescape would be if this was implemented?

 

Very empty.

[Dizzle229]

the asteriks army would take over. especially because of pures :?

[fighterhwk]

Pretty nice idea :)

 

 

 

I agree. It would make the majority of noobs quit Runescape. No more annoying noobs! :D

[The_Kuniva]

While it is a good idea in theory, remember the number one rule: If something is made to be idiot proof, the universe simply creates a bigger idiot.

 

 

 

Stupid people will still find a way to be stupid :P

[Zaaps1]

While it is a good idea in theory, remember the number one rule: If something is made to be idiot proof, the universe simply creates a bigger idiot.

 

 

 

Stupid people will still find a way to be stupid :P

 

 

 

Pray to the Lord they do something funny...

[Peronix]

Wow. I really hope the perfect this; this would be the cure for the stupidity of the RSOF. Of course there would still be stupid logic, but at least you'd be able to read it :XD:

[epeeflecher]

i mke chicken nooble soup out of u n00b

[Jeda45]

10 bucks says the phrase "I own you, no life noob" will get through.

 

Death of PTFFP thread ,though.

[Erichermit]

While I don't use the leet speak frowned upon and the random jibberjabber spam everyone hates, I can see this filter as being rather oppresive.

[hybrid2hell]

Really interesting idea, i dont know if i would like it or not though. I get a little flamy at pures in edge :P

[The Observer]

Players would get forced to use proper grammar. :)

[Xx_Flare_xX]

tbh i don't like the sound of it :( that means me and my friends won't be able to have a 'chat war' via private message'

[Wallettheif]

Finally something that kicks idiots out of rs. :)

[mememe513]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would be nice, but it would take out the humor of stupid posts

[SwreeTak]

I would love if they added such a filter :D

[Zaaps1]

bump

[MrBowser]

If this comes... Runescape will save MILLIONS on Bandwidth, because I'm going to go out on a limb and say 40% of all text is meaningless/stupid.

 

 

 

I hope this goes to EVERY website... As long as it doesn't filter exesive use of smileys... :ohnoes: :ohnoes: :ohnoes: