Profanity: Legally Bypassing the RS Censor

[Zaaps1]

[hide=DISCLAIMER]If you take offense to partly-censored or "bypassed" swear words you may not want to read this. If you are a mod or admin and feel that this thread is too offensive, you should do your job and immediately lock it.[/hide]

 

 

 

You know I was thinking a few months ago about legal ways to express swear words in RS. As you all know, the rules say that

 

 

 

4. What about mis-spelling an offensive word to disguise it? Is that okay?

 

 

 

No, please don't do this. In fact, mis-spelling an offensive word or using symbols to replace letters to avoid the chat filter is considered even worse.

 

 

 

In other words, don't bypass the censor!

 

 

 

However, is there an acceptable way to do this? I'm sure we'd all love to get past the censor, but we all know about the kids who report you for doing so.

 

 

 

But here's my "solution". You all know how the censor completely blocks a word. Well what if you MANUALLY censor PARTS of the word. Typing in s**t for example. It's censored, isn't it? It's just not completed censored. But it does it's job right, correct?

 

 

 

Here's my more detailed argument FOR allowing it to be acceptable.

 

 

 

1. It already exists, to an extent.

 

[hide=]"Wtf". You all know what it means. The last word is obviously a swear word. However you only see part of it. May I ask what the difference is between "wtf" and "f**k" is? I don't see any, since in both cases you don't show much of the world and in other cases it's "censored".

 

 

 

Before "[wagon]" was uncensored, "lmao" was still considered acceptable, despite "[wagon]" being directly abbreviated in it.

 

 

 

So in conclusion, if acronyms containing these words are acceptable and unreportable, then why not censoring all the letters other than the first and last? What is the difference?[/hide]

 

 

 

2. It is already socially acceptable.

 

[hide=]What I mean is outside of RuneScape. When Time and Newsweek interview people, and they say [cabbage] or [bleep], what do they do? Since it's a direct quote, they MUST use the word, but they have readers of all ages. My 6 year old brother reads Time. Granted he doesn't understand much of it, but he can comprehend the basic sentences, just not the article as a whole. A 6 year old has no business calling his Kindergarten teacher an [wagon], so what do those magazines do?

 

 

 

You guessed it. Censor. But not *** instead of [wagon]. No. It's a**. It's s**t. It's f**k and b***h. They censor parts of the word so anyone who does not know the word already will not know what it is. People who are offended by it will understand that they mean to censor it.

 

 

 

And if Newsweek and the London Tribune find that s**t is acceptable to readers of all ages, why shouldn't Jagex find it acceptable for people 13 and older?[/hide]

 

 

 

3. "The Censor is fine how it is!"

 

[hide=]That's wrong. It does it's job fine, but it is by no means "good". Exposing part of the world allows greater freedom of expression as well as greater sentence clarity.

 

 

 

Take the following example:

 

 

 

"This Anchor is a piece of ****"

 

 

 

Piece of what? Piece of fail? As you know many times if you spell a word wrong, it gets censored. So how do you know I didn't spell a word, such as "win", "own", or "fail" and simply have that censored?

 

 

 

"This Anchor is a peice of s**t"

 

 

 

You can't really say I mean to use any other word.

 

 

 

Knowing the above, here's another example:

 

 

 

***** the censor

 

 

 

F**k the censor? Screw the censor? Kill the censor? PRAISE the censor?[/hide]

 

 

 

So here's my discussion question: Would you find this means of censoring acceptable?

 

 

 

Consider this: If you type in a swear word, and it is fully censored (*****), you can't get banned. But if you try to bypass it (for example, in the old days: @$$) you CAN be reported. So is b***h just a looser censor? Or is it a method of bypassing

 

 

 

[hide=In Other News Today]Reading through the rules while finding the first quote, I realized that Jagex has made it AGAINST THE RULES to ask someone else in the game to be your girlfriend/boyfriend!

 

 

 

All I got to say is: owned.[/hide]

[Musky44]

[bleep] the censor.

[Zaaps1]

[bleep] the censor.

 

 

 

Well I know that some people, including myself, are not interested in getting blackmarks of any type. I just want to discuss with everyone if they find this acceptable or not, I do.

 

 

 

[hide=]thanks for the example[/hide]

[forestfrolic]

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of ten year olds cursing..

[Randox]

The difference between an acronym and a partialy censored word. Well damn, ones an ACRONYM and ones a PARTIALY CENSORED WORD. The difference between wtf and what the f**k is twofold. The latter takes alot longer to type, and the last word has 2 letters showing (thats 50% of the word) showing instead of 1 letter (which is 25% of the word). Oh my, thats a 25% difference in how much of the word is shown.

 

 

 

Besides, I expect that the jmods, pmods, and fmods alike will all consider this intentionaly misspelling a word. I am fairly certain the f word does not normally have to asteriks (or any astericks) in it, and you are intentionaly preventing the censor from doing what it was designed to do. Jagex has given their blessing to acronyms, not to censor evasion.

 

 

 

Do this if you wan't, but it begs the question: Why do you feel such an overwhelming urge to not only curse, but make sure other people know what curse words you use?

 

 

 

You already have the freedom to swear as much as you wan't. All Jagex asks is that you let the censor star it out. Your 'target audiance' can already decode the stars, so basicly all your trying to do is make sure even more people know what you are trying to say. As far as increasing your audice for swearing, you have one very [cabbage]ty goal from where I am standing.

[wioneo]

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of ten year olds cursing..

 

 

 

Which is what we have now...and always will have until they age or die from eating the stuff under the sink.

 

 

 

On topic, I think that's a great f**kin idea, but I and several other people I assume, are much too lazy to press the shift key regularly. So it would be completely impossible to use. I seriously doubt that you ill get muted for it, though. Then again I got muted for saying something was a "stupid idea"...

[forestfrolic]

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of ten year olds cursing..

Which is what we have now...and always will have until they age or die from eating the stuff under the sink.

 

 

 

Actually, we don't. We have a censor so I don't have to listen. Now if every little kid decides to use this method of starring out letters, then we will have a game full of ten year olds cursing.

[wioneo]

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of ten year olds cursing..

Which is what we have now...and always will have until they age or die from eating the stuff under the sink.

 

 

 

Actually, we don't. We have a censor so I don't have to listen. Now if every little kid decides to use this method of starring out letters, then we will have a game full of ten year olds cursing.

 

 

 

The reason that "bypassing the censor" is against the rules is because several people did, and continue to do it. The method of intentionally including asterisks is currently possible, but like I said that requires a bit of effort, so it is not seen very often. "Little kids" and other undesirables usually don't like putting in extra effort and are much more likely to just misspell the word(depending on the word, that is).

 

 

 

I personally don't see what harm any word does, and that all the babying that has become socially accepted is unnecessary, but my views don't mean much.

[onuasdad]

You already have the freedom to swear as much as you wan't. All Jagex asks is that you let the censor star it out. Your 'target audiance' can already decode the stars, so basicly all your trying to do is make sure even more people know what you are trying to say.

 

 

 

Indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

The rules said the reason for the censor is to have a nice gaming enviroment... What difference is there between getting, "****" but knowing what those stars represent (Or get a general idea) Or getting the actual word, where you can express your feelings? What I'm trying to say is that if you get a number of *'s, you can generally decode what it actually is.

 

 

 

If 10 year olds lied that they're 13+, then they're probably stupid enough to hear a 'bad word' a few times. Using these words woulden't cause any harm in runescape if they would be uncensored, and if you use the words in real life you face the consequences, which generally don't exist when you're 13+ because the majority of the people use these words when they're 13+. Besides, If you get 'caught' using these words, the [moderators] won't give you a long speech. They're like fires: If you give excuses (air) they can thrive by exposing more flaws in what you did. And when they know their own speech had a weak point, they only accept a Yes/No answer, which tells you to magnify their flaw by force. Yes, I know that the previous sentences were pointless, but saying a bad word won't give the [moderators] A lot to begin their talk about. Besides, you're only expressing your true self.

 

 

 

But here's my "solution". You all know how the censor completely blocks a word. Well what if you MANUALLY censor PARTS of the word. Typing in s**t for example. It's censored, isn't it? It's just not completed censored. But it does it's job right, correct?

 

 

 

 

I don't think this would be considered misspelling to get past the censor: you're not misspelling anything, and you're not getting past the censor directly. However, if you type in a complete sentence with a 'bad word' in it, the recipiant can probably guess what word it is, based on the number of letters and the surrounding context (To guess if the word is a noun, verb, adjective, etc.)

 

 

 

I personally don't see what harm any word does, and that all the babying that has become socially accepted is unnecessary, but my views don't mean much.

 

 

 

 

Words can do harm to the people who take them personally. Generally, if you're 13+ this means words can't do any harm to you. In the end, they're just opinions, which help you.

[WolfieMario]

I think this is actually a very good idea. I hate when it just stars it out, and doesn't give you the slightest clue what it actually is. I tried telling my friend that I'm pissed off the other day. The censor comes to the rescue -.-, leaving my friend with the need to fill in the blanks. What am I? Am I f***ed off? Am I crapped off? Am I s***ed off? Have I jacked off? :shock: So I try again, this time by using only one s, and saying I'm "pised off". Of course, even though I'm in private chat, with a friend I know in real life, it still has to be censored :x. So, what does "***** off" mean? Assed off? Raped off? :shock: My final attempt was pretty much a despairing search for something that's non censored. Apparently, "urinated off" is also considered inappropriate in RS #-o

 

I think that they should probably make a "selective censor" instead. Basically, you could set the level of your censor. People playing that are under 13 would be forced to use the full-strength censor, just like they have to use quickchat to talk, but everyone else could go with the f***ing genius method zaaps1 described :. People who don't want to can use the full-strength censor if they prefer. Actually, similar to how it works in WoW (I don't play, but a friend told me about its censor system), they should let people turn the censor off altogether if they really want to. Maybe they could put an age requirement, like 16 or 18 or so, but anyone above 13 could still use the semi-censored mode

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Also, an option so messages from a friend (must be a mutual friend, on both of your friends lists) can have a censor level separate from normal chat censor. In other words, chat from anyone except your friends can be fully censored, while chat by a friend only gets the partial censor. Or, use the partial censor for non-friends, and don't censor friends at all. Basically, you would have two slider bars to adjust censor levels for friends and non-friends :)

[onuasdad]

Actually, similar to how it works in WoW (I don't play, but a friend told me about its censor system), they should let people turn the censor off altogether if they really want to. Maybe they could put an age requirement, like 16 or 18 or so, but anyone above 13 could still use the semi-censored mode

 

 

 

That's a good idea; maybe people who have the censor turned off could talk normally, but people with the censor on would get stars instead of the message that to "no-censor" people would see.

[Marco]

Feel free to talk about the censor. If Jagex apparently now view their game as being one aimed at a much older audience then there should be no problem in having a discussion about the censor.

 

 

 

I've personally always been in favour of having an [on]/[friends]/[off] option to the censor, that way everyone should be happy.

 

 

 

Report closed; topic is fine to discuss. Tip.it has a decent censor for the most vulgar words anyway. ;)

[Napalm]

 

I think that they should probably make a "selective censor" instead. Basically, you could set the level of your censor. People playing that are under 13 would be forced to use the full-strength censor, just like they have to use quickchat to talk, but everyone else could go with the f***ing genius method zaaps1 described :

 

 

 

This. Honestly, anyone who gets offended by "bad" words, can just toggle the censor on and see as many asterisks as they want.

[Da_Latios]

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of ten year olds cursing..

 

Sorry, I don't feel like playing a game full of sad little ten-year-olds desperately trying to gain modship through incessant reporting.

[nubbycubby]

Reading through the rules while finding the first quote, I realized that Jagex has made it AGAINST THE RULES to ask someone else in the game to be your girlfriend/boyfriend!

 

 

 

All I got to say is: owned.

 

 

 

Nitpick: that was always against the rules; Rule One included solicited for a boyfriend/girlfriend. Well, at least you read the rules once. Some people don't know the rules at all.

 

 

 

And to contribute something to the topic: manually censoring your words should be perfectly acceptable; after all, even if the game censors the entire word, you'd probably know what was said by the context: "piece of ****", "what the ****", etc.

[Nicolescat]

My view: if a word is censored, it's censored. The reason you can't report for censored words is since they have been blocked out, there is nothing offensive there. The censor can be quite odd at times to and if you minorly mistype something it'll get censored, or you'll end up with a legitimate sentence that may end up with lots of stars in it.

 

 

 

So: "**** off" could mean anything.

 

 

 

"f**k off"... really, you are more likely to be reported, as you're obviously swearing. And is there really any need to type it like that with the express idea of using it to bypass the censor? The language is stronger, if anything it makes it more offensive rather than less as instead of just typing the word and letting it be censored, you've actually taken the effort to go around it.

 

 

 

And, in this particular example, it's very aggressive. Slightly different in less offensive contexts, perhaps, and with less offensive words, but it's still the same principle.

 

 

 

I guess it's your choice if you use it or not, but I do think it'd be seen as worse than just saying it normally, and also more likely to end up with people reporting you as some people are very report happy. I don't really think it's worth the risk to be honest - as has been mentioned, you can generally tell what is meant by context anyway.

 

 

 

Guess it comes down to weighing it up: is it really worth it to clarify what many people can already tell anyway?

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

I strongly dislike filtering of any kind; I actually believe in free speech. I also strongly dislike children/teenagers using profanity to either make a joke or insult someone. The latter will always take precedence, since I'd rather hear dialogue without four or five letter words coming from teens that think they're grown-up, than I would to let them let loose like a sailor.

 

 

 

It'd be nice to see a game without a filter, but then, we're faced with an issue of trust. Can you *trust* the RS community to be obedient and use polite speech, and "adult" language when the situation may call for it? If the RWT updates are any indication, then we should all know the answer to that. Even if they were to make "adult" servers, there's no way to 100% guarantee that the players are adult without providing *too much* information. Funnily enough, that's why I oppose that in the first place.

 

 

 

Guess it comes down to weighing it up: is it really worth it to clarify what many people can already tell anyway?

 

 

 

Truth be told, we often times fill in the stars. Suppose I was referring to an unpleasant situation, and I said, "***** it, I'm going to the KBD." What do you think I said? What did I actually say? In retrospect, suppose my 'o' and '0' key worked sporadically (hey- there's an O in my name!), and the starred out phrase now read "frget". It's very, very realistic that it was filtered out, since it sound like an offensive phrase now.

 

 

 

Remember - to assume means to make an [wagon] out of you and me. And, with the circumstances of WBMs and report-happy clanmates, I'm going to be the one that gets the short end of the stick.

[la la la]

The argument that you can't fully express yourself without the censor isn't a strong one. I'm hoping everyone's vocabulary is large enough to think of a single, more acceptable, synonym for a censored word. If you are really hooked on feces, just say that "This anchor is a piece of poop." If you are just angry at the anchor, say "This anchor sucks." I think we're fine.

[duncdar2]

I really do laugh at the quote, "Little ten year old trying to gain mod ship." :mrgreen: Now, let's do some basic thinking mate. How do you think most player moderators came to be? :x They reported players and educated other about the rules. And, I quite admire those "ten year olds" how have the gut to bother reporting a rule breaker! JAGeX doesn't care if they're a "little ten year old" or not. They may be trying to get moderator ship but they're still doing the game a favour by reporting those other "ten year olds" who think it's fun to swear and bypass the censor. I envy you sir if you can't think of a bloody synonym for "damn". :|

 

"Gah, you fallacious apathetic harlequin, you can go divide pi in half!" Has the same meaning as, "God, you're all a bunch of [developmentally delayed]ed [bleep]s, I hope you all burn in hell1!1!shift1!" But it's just more politically correct, unlike our second option with is politically INCORRECT. :o

 

(I bet Tip.It's censor blocks half the words in option two.) :lol:

 

EDIT: It appears I am right...

[Alg]

I'm with lalala7324 on this one, there are other words you can use usually.

 

Though otherwise it's a pretty f---ing* good idea. Limit it though, you only have to look at when [wagon], suck, and crap were uncensored to see the little kids going nuts with "w00t gablitz says we can swer nao!!1!@!1! asscrapsuck" when in fact all they did was change the censor, not the rule.

 

* :lol:

[Big_Stingman]

Eh doesn't really bother me that much. I don't really swear that much in real life anyway, and that carries over to my Runescaping. It's just a game anyway and if something bad happens I usually just say, "Crap..." :lol:

[Zierro]

Is it really considered the censor if you manually type in *'s? I think that's just another way of bypassing it. That being said, I don't agree with censors but I also wouldn't consider this a legit loophole.

[SwreeTak]

I will remember this the next time I get killed by a crowd of noobs in castle wars. Those f*****s were just lucky... -.-

[unjustblood]

I think its fine to have the censor in the way you described. f**k

 

 

 

If you say "F you", you already know exactly what the person means.

 

 

 

"You a hole"

 

 

 

You know already, so why bother making it all stars. Just makes it annoying.

[jimmy_jim]

There really is little need to swear in RuneScape. A lot of the time it will just make you look like an idiot. With the update to the censor, I really haven't seen many people abusing the uncensored words, I don't think there's any need to let more words through the censor, it's fine as it is.

 

 

 

Even though Jagex are aiming for people of a higher age to play, there's still many young players.