Forum rule reminder

[Fraseb01]

I am not implying any one here is a snow flake but omg , the world has gone bonkers and all this over nothing ! seems to be they way the world works these days.

 

[Parksy]

I would just like to point out that my 6 year old grandsons comic makes frequent use of all sorts of non letter characters in speech bubbles when the cartoon character hits his thumb with a hammer etc. Tom and Jerry do it in their cartoons as well. Are they disguised swear words???
No one complains about them do they?
Come on moderators, you need to inject a bit of "moderation" into what you do. Go and stand outside a primary school gate sometime and just listen, it's certainly an education and vastly worse than amything ever posted on here.

And you don't see any connection at all between the normalisation of bad language in comics and the bad language that you hear outside primary school gates?

For the avoidance of doubt I do NOT condone offensive, profane, or insulting language, on this (or any other) forum but of course where is the line between "jokey" and offensive etc? I certainly don't envy the moderators their job, but do feel, at times, they are a bit nanyish.

Due to an increasing tendency for examples of inappropriate language to be casually introduced into otherwise valid sensible forum posts by certain individuals, I wrote a post to warn forum members that this rising tendency has to stop because its against forum rules.
Do you think that moderators have nothing better to do with our lives than to sit at our computers deciding whether a given swear word is against an arbitrary rule according to our perceptions of its severity or 'jokeyness?'

Should we try to decipher a set of symbols to decide what the originator meant?
What about consistency?
Perhaps we should hold a conference via Skype to determine how high this arbitrary bar needs to be set?
So far, very few examples of unacceptable language have appeared on the message boards, because moderators edit the posts which contain the rule breaking language.

Because some individuals decided to ignore the forum rules, moderators are having to edit more often.

Why should we?

If the rule was adhered to in the first place we wouldn't need to intervene or to spend time trying to explain what standards of acceptable behaviour on this forum are.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Parksy beat me to it and I agree with what he's written. Still I'm going to add my thoughts on the subject then close this thread as it could go on forever.

Cartoon magazines aimed at the young do include characters supposedly speaking with strong language depicted by symbols. That doesn't mean they are swear words. One would hope that the writers, editors and publishers do not start the story with swear words and make substitutions.

Even so I would doubt and certainly hope that any 6 year old would not be able to associate swear words to the symbols. Yes, they may hear these words at school or even at home but I doubt they could spell them and make the association.

I find it sad that young kids know these words but hope that the teaching and education process results in a better understanding of acceptable language.

Supposedly we have been through this process and become mature adults so should know better than the young ones.
Yet when someone on this forum makes a post and substitutes symbols for letters it's pretty clear to most what they really imply. When we read it our minds may well put in the swear words even though it's not actually printed as such. This to me is just as bad as having the actual words.

But bad posts are not just about swearing. Some contain insulting, demeaning or patronising language that some find offensive.

We as moderators are not always making changes on our own accord. Often other members make reports about a post they find offensive. We then judge what course of action to take.

Please also keep in mind that you may not always see the bad posts we come across as we may well have taken action before you get to the thread.

If someone would like to come up with a set of guidelines that clearly states how not to offend anyone on this forum, please let's have it.

Finally the old adage about treating others as you would expect to be treated is totally wrong. You should treat others as they expect to be treated which may well be different from yourself. And since most of us here don't really know each other this is hard to determine.

Grandpa Sam