Have you ever fallen foul of the word filter?

@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
November 1, 2018 4:32am CST
The purpose of a word filter is to prevent "bad" words from appearing on a site like MyLot. The idea is that somebody with a particularly dirty mind feeds all the "curse" words they can think of into a program which then prevents any piece of text that contains one or more of those words from being published. In theory, this is an excellent idea. It should stop foul-mouthed diatribes appearing on a family-friendly site like this - although I did recently find a link to a YouTube video that was peppered with F words, so protecting everyone is not that easy. However, the algorithm that the MyLot - and presumably other sites - word filter relies on is based on strings of letters as opposed to whole words. That means that if that string of letters appears within a perfectly innocent word, the piece in question will be prevented from being published as the writer intended. Ironically, the only option a writer has under those circumstances is to disguise the string in some way, such as by placing one of the offending letters in brackets, which is what I do. The irony comes from the fact that this immediately draws the reader's attention to the letter string in question - they may not have been aware of the naughty word beforehand, but they certainly are now! To show you what I mean, here are two examples that I have fallen foul of recently. The word "s(n)igger" means "to laugh disrespectfully". It certainly does not mean "to laugh at people with dark skins" which the ban on printing the word might lead some to think. There is a large town in England - it is the county town of North Lincolnshire - called S(c)unthorpe. The name goes back to pre-Norman times and means "Scuma's homestead", from roots in Old Norse. But - as you see - the word filter prevents anyone referring to the town from doing so properly. There are plenty of other examples - MyLot member JJ has pointed out the impossibility of referring to C(h)ardonnay wine! There is a solution to this problem, and that would be for the word filter algorithm to be amended so that innocent words such as those mentioned here could be go on a list of permitted exceptions. The list would grow as members found further examples. I am sure that it is possible to do this technically - so how about it, MyLot?
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1 response
@xFiacre (14809)
• Ireland
1 Nov 18
@indexer And yet we can say member and poppycock!!
3 people like this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
1 Nov 18
@myklj999 Exactly. It is all a bit hit or miss. It's one of those situations where you don't know what the rules are until you break them!