Language policy.

Other than most professional forums out there, our filter policy is actually very relaxed. We rarely (if ever) filter words like fuck or shit. As long as they are not used to specifically target or insult someone, and as long as they are used moderately, we let them go through. I''m not sure about the new forums, we might change to a stricter policy (it''s the staffs decision).

About our strict no-porn policy: GameDev.net''s server is located in the US, and is such under US jurisdiction. The US has very strong child protection laws when it comes to porn, and we have to respect them even if they seem a little too harsh from the perspective of other countries. This has nothing to do with "american type hypocriticism [sic]", it has to do with securing GDNet''s legal position.

Another, just as important point is work safety. This is a professional board, not a place where highschool kiddies can throw immature insults at each other. Many people read it from work, and most employee contracts have a no-porn clause. In other words: if you read GDNet at work, inadvertedly click on a thread where some retarded idiot posted porn, then you could lose your job over that.

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Majority of people here use words fuck, shit, cunt, faggot and asshole with maturity

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You have to be kidding me. Anyone associating words like "cunt" or "faggot" with "maturity" must have a serious problem comprehending the definition of the later...

If you really want a board where you can "express" yourself like that and still be taken seriously, try here

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Original post by Michalson
If you really want a board where you can "express" yourself like that and still be taken seriously, try here

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That site is everything I spoke against. Are you intentionally not seeing what I'm trying to say.

Their target audience is immature 8-20 year-old. If you can write you qualify as a poster at gamefaqs.

The point was that here we don't need world filters, A) because they are moronic B) because ther target audience is 16-professional. People who are cabable of understanding more complicated sentences than LOL HL2 LEAKED LOL!

Give me one good reason why there should be a word filter. PG-13 crap? Oh god.

Edit:
Point: The target of this site seems to be all over coverage of gamedevelopment. I do agree, this policy must be enforced in articles, in fact I'd like to see much more strict and professional language used in the articles. These boards, however, are about personal expression.

Let's take and example the lounge. I see a mega ton of shit posts. Posts that have no content and cosist of attention whoring. Posts that have no meaning and no swear words are used.

What does this imply? If you want to improve the image of the board, please cut the number of stupid people posting and then start to look for other minor problems.

Lounge proves my point:
Stupid people are stupid people even if they used sign language.

I agree, I have never used the word cunt since I was a teenager, however I do use the word fuck when I'm pissed.


Just because your ethnical background(puritan society) wants pg-13 ratings everywhere I can't see why gamedev has to comply. In movies it is stupid to beep out the words. In fact to me and a lot of people I know they make the experience bad.

Just please tell me, after I read fel's post I realized that in future gamedev there will be no swearwords. Is this ture? If it is so, then I might conclude that gamedev.net targets script kiddles and all professional related things are at gamasutra or flipcode. 90% of the poster base right now are of this group. Sorry, but I can't take seriously anything wordfiltered.



[edited by - Captian Goatse on October 4, 2003 12:52:02 PM]

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Another, just as important point is work safety. This is a professional board, not a place where highschool kiddies can throw immature insults at each other. Many people read it from work, and most employee contracts have a no-porn clause. In other words: if you read GDNet at work, inadvertedly click on a thread where some retarded idiot posted porn, then you could lose your job over that.

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Then gamedev.net is not a professional board as it is targetted to children who should not see bad words. I agree, on professional board there should be no porn, but also the user-base should consist of people who are professional.

Professionals make boards professional, not the other way around.

[edited by - Captian Goatse on October 4, 2003 12:55:55 PM]

Use cuss words all you want, just don''t whine about it when you get put on probation and subsequently banned...

I guess I could give you my input.

If I see a guy misusing these words in a way I don''t find appropiate, I just ignore the poster and move on, or I choose to ignore the words and stick to the important part.

I''ll be more worried when people write unreadable messages, like 2000 sentances in a row or extremely wierd spelling or something like that. We are all from different parts of the world and we cannot expect perfect english from anybody (not me at least ;-), but I think you understand what I mean.

Inmature people trying to overide the cencoringmachine (with words like "phuck you" etc to avoid automatic finding of the messages containg certain words) will bother me more than those few who will use them in a way to try to express themself.

If people try harder to write nicer, other people will take after and beginners to the forums will be more careful of what they post, not by forcing them to do so.

Cheers
Albert "thec" Sandberg

you have to ask yourself, what is this board for, cussing people out or game development. Sure, theres the occasional "damn it", "shit","fuck",or "crap" that is a direct result of game development, but most of it is immature kids crapposting the board (<-note, heres a GOOD use of "crap").

Im for a word filter, or some other sort of moderating tool. (i like the one used on genesis3d.com, it works well and nobody ever complains about it)

btw, your post is a great example of why a filter needs to be in place, thank you.

my $.02

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
Do the policies in place for users also hold true for moderators? I bring your attention to the recent topic .. http://gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?whichpage=6&pagesize=20&topic_id=183486

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I''d just like to point out that there is no official "policy in place" regarding language. felisandria asked that people in her forum refrain from using profanity in thread titles in particular, and posting in general. As staff, we''d like to discourage widespread profanity, but it''s not against the rules.

How can you say "I'm an adult so I can cuss maturely"? That makes no sense at all to me, since being an adult would mean you have enough of a vocabulary that you don't need to use profanity to express yourself. While the English language can be limiting (an absolute statement, since I don't know any other language well enough to compare the two), there are plenty of words to use to express various every-day ideas, thoughts, and emotions. If you can't think of a good word, trying using dictionary.com's thesaurus.

People sound stupid in real life when they use profanity and it is no different on forums.

About professional's making a board professional: do you pay attention? Many professionals frequent this board. Many of the moderators are professionals in the CS field. They ARE trying to make it a professional board, except that they don't want to exclude amateurs because that is what the site is all about. They want it to be both work-safe and kid-safe so that everybody can enjoy the site without getting into trouble.
You say that kids should not browse unattended. Are you saying that kids should not be allowed to this site? I don't see how a parent being next to the kid would stop the kid from clicking a 'bad link'(be it to a thread or in one) on gamedev since they think the site is ok.

[edited by - extrarius on October 8, 2003 2:29:29 PM]

Cussing is gratuitous 100% of the time. There is NEVER a time when cussing is "necessary" as such.

"Mature cussing" is bullshit.

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Original post by Promit
Cussing is gratuitous 100% of the time. There is NEVER a time when cussing is "necessary" as such.

"Mature cussing" is bullshit.

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Well, The internet is plagued by forum carebears. It is great to see the Myophic Rhino''s stance towards the issue. I''d really hate to see this board fall into the category where wal-mart music, american network tv and other fundie things lie.

It''s been gratuitous lately. People swear here just because they can, not for any cause. Promit''s use of bullshit is the least gratuitous use I''ve seen in months.