How much swearing do you allow in your forum?

[christopherrogers84]

Think before you post: studies find that employers are watching you online - and around

[Echavarria]

You should hear some Aussies, every other word is a swear word with some people lol. But I don't really mind it. Quite the opposite, I think it's funny.

[Macro Man]

I think it depends on subject matter and cultural/social expectations. I'm not particularly a fan of swearing - but in the UK we do tend to use swear words to emphasise something that other words simply can't do with the same effect. It's normally all done in jest, but if someone used swearing in a way that was derogatory or was deliberately used to offend someone, then they would be out on their backside

[Replicant]

I run a 4x4 Blazer forum and I've noticed most F-bombs are dropped during periods of frustration in regards to a truck. Our forum is geared more toward men so swearing is just accepted with all the other worthless banter. Of course, we are all rednecks on my site and sometimes we get a thread going where F-bombs are adjectives, verbs and nouns. I have a warning on the home page that if you are offended by this type of behavior, this is not the site for you.

[Paul]

Or is it better to say, no swearing at all, not even obvious strings of random characters?

I guess it would depend on the kind of forum you are running. Most of the forums that I visit are casual enough to allow a couple of characters even when swearing isn't allowed. I think many people would think that you were being overly strict if a couple of characters weren't allowed.

[Mark.B]

I don't care too much if someone uses a swear word once in awhile on my forum. Swearing all the time is a different story and it might lead to someone being banned. I wont swear in front of a woman and if a forum has a high number of female members, I'll substitute a few letters with with some symbols like @, %, #, etc. when I want to use a swear word. I have no problem at all with someone substituting letters with symbols on my forum, I think it shows that they are at least trying not to be offensive.

A lot of sites though also ban 'masked swearing', where people post things like 'f*ck' where it's obvious what the word is ment to be. Where should the line drawn on that?
How many letters have to obscured?
Or is it better to say, no swearing at all, not even obvious strings of random characters?

[Mark.B]

Depending on the severity or blatant disregard for the rules usually we issue warnings. We don't allow vulgarity or abbreviations of them. We cater to all ages though.

I'm with GTB also, regarding what people who swear sound like. There's what? A quarter million or more words in the English dictionary and people can't find a word to properly convey what they think or feel at the moment besides vulgarity?

I'm with you on this. I never swear, and when people do, I just think they are probably a bit simple and find difficulty expressing themselves.

[Paul]

I don't care too much if someone uses a swear word once in awhile on my forum. Swearing all the time is a different story and it might lead to someone being banned. I wont swear in front of a woman and if a forum has a high number of female members, I'll substitute a few letters with with some symbols like @, %, #, etc. when I want to use a swear word. I have no problem at all with someone substituting letters with symbols on my forum, I think it shows that they are at least trying not to be offensive.

[William]

This is an interesting question. I'm a member of a couple of forums where a simple swear word means a lifetime ban....

My own site is extremely liberal on this, and indeed has got more so over the years as we just came to realise life was too short. Interestingly, after lifting all the 'word bans' of that nature, swearing went down!

Depending on the severity or blatant disregard for the rules usually we issue warnings. We don't allow vulgarity or abbreviations of them. We cater to all ages though.

I'm with GTB also, regarding what people who swear sound like. There's what? A quarter million or more words in the English dictionary and people can't find a word to properly convey what they think or feel at the moment besides vulgarity?

[GTB]

I'm not a person that swears on forums if I can help it. I don't think coming out with lots of swear words makes a person look good at all. I'm not against a person coming out with odd swear word blurted out now and then, but if a member was foul mouthed in general coming out with swear words all too often in posts they'd be gone (banned).

There's nothing clever about being foul mouthed with swear words all the time. And I've been brought up in a working class background, so I'm not some snob who's not seen it all said. I just think people who swear a lot sound like scrubbers.

[Mark.B]

This is an interesting question. I'm a member of a couple of forums where a simple swear word means a lifetime ban....

My own site is extremely liberal on this, and indeed has got more so over the years as we just came to realise life was too short. Interestingly, after lifting all the 'word bans' of that nature, swearing went down!