Derogatory words conflict
By Koalemos
@Asylum (47893)
Manchester, England
October 6, 2015 11:49am CST
As we would all expect, Mylot has a feature that will not allow profanity or derogatory terms to be submitted as post, response or comment. This is a necessary system to ensure that nobody posts abuse or uses offensive terminology.
To my surprise I recently attempted to submit a response to a post and received a message in red that I needed to remove the bad words before continuing. This really caught me unawares because I knew that no such words could possibly be contained in a something that I had written.
When I looked closely I realised that the offending word was a composite part of another word. Obviously I cannot post the actual word because it would not be accepted, but here is an example of what I mean. If “LIMB” qualified as a bad word, then I would be unable to post “CLIMBING” because the screening system would pick up the contained letters and block it.
I wonder how many valid words have been blocked by this method.
15 people like this
13 responses
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
7 Oct 15
But I wonder what about words like classroom for instance, that contain letters that could be identified as blocked words?
I'm surprised that some of the words that used to be blocked aren't anymore, though. 
@SIMPLYD (90717)
• Philippines
7 Oct 15
Hmm , i haven't experienced that yet . But , if i do i would change it immediately to what is acceptable to them . At least they warn us about it . not let us go on and delete the comment after .
@rebelann (117199)
• El Paso, Texas
6 Oct 15
Oh wow, I had no clue they had such a filter. Thanks for the heads up butt now I haveta find out which words to avoid, dang it, I had hoped not to have to worry about filters 
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
6 Oct 15
There is really no need to work out which words would be rejected because you will be informed as soon as you attempt to post one. All you would then need to do is change the word to an alternative and acceptable one, which is exactly what I did.
I was writing the type of laugh that Mutley from Wacky Races is famous for, but removing the S from the front would create a derogatory term, so I simply changed it to Giggle.
2 people like this
when you said Mutley was a pup I just knew I'd have to see it, my fav toon is Snoopy with his bird Woodstock.
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
8 Oct 15
Yes it is something when this happens.
It does not happen often, but it does.
I usually just find a way around it.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
@TiarasOceanView I would have understood if the site blocked words of dual meaning. The valid English words that have been used in a derogatory sense for some time.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
8 Oct 15
@Asylum Yes it is kind of funny as you are not meaning to use any bad words.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
It sounds strange that the system would pick up hidden words that way, but it actually does. Considering that we never intend to use these words it is pure chance as to whether we inadvertently choose one or not, so we could get 4 red messages in a day or 1 every 10 years.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
6 Oct 15
The filter does help keep things from escalating into profanity, but I was blocked from quoting John Adams the other day, because he used a word for an illegitimate child that myLot considers bad language. I hadn't considered that it would pick out just parts of words that by themselves would be objectionable.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
6 Oct 15
I fully agree that the filter is worthwhile, but should be set to a more logical discriminatory level.
I can also understand the system blocking the word that you refer to because despite being a valid and acceptable word it is often used in a less acceptable manner.
However, picking out portions of a word and construing them as words in their own right is absurd and certainly should be corrected.
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
6 Oct 15
There is always a way to get around rules. It is a matter of realistic terms. Or rather unrealistic. How important is the term used and how gifted is the user? If gifted enough then surely there is a way to reword, reuse, re-evaluate what is being said to please everyone.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
6 Oct 15
Substituting an alternative word did not present any problem to me, but the fact that the filter operates in this manner was certainly unexpected. I cannot believe that it would be difficult to check whole words only and not composite parts by simply selecting a series of letters between 2 spaces or punctuation marks.
@Shellyann36 (11383)
• United States
7 Oct 15
I have not run into this problem since myLot started paying again. I did have the misfortune of once typing a word that is not a curse word but it is spelled similar and sounds the same. I got the redlight for this word but that was years ago when I first joined myLot.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
7 Oct 15
Whether you encounter this or how frequently is a matter of chance since it depends entirely on your personal choice of words. It is easy to circumvent by inserting an alternative word, but seems a poor system to be unable to differentiate properly.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
6 Oct 15
I always suspected that Mylot would have a filter to prevent such words being posted because they could be seen by many people if it was up to the Adm,in to find and remove them. Of course I did not anticipate this issue when posting perfectly respectable words.
1 person likes this
@softbabe44 (5815)
• Vancouver, Washington
7 Oct 15
sometimes things come up like that thinking that we wouldn't never do that i get that kinda a over see
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
9 Oct 15
I couldn't be 'scootermac' here because that name contains a reference to a N. American river turtle with another meaning. Haven't had any problems since though.
