You misspelled “monthly period.”
At least he wasn’t being a prick.
I rather we not use profane words in thread tittles.
Thread titles are an easy marker the the computer geeks at work to see if you’ve been up to no good on the internets.
It should be noted that the change was at the OP’s request and wasn’t just a case of Miller being prissy.
I know it’s hard to be prissy in jackboots but mods walk a fine line.
That is NOT funny.
This is a key distinction.
But it’ll come to a head if/when some troll starts posting profane titles just to say “bite my shiny metal ass, it’s my title and I don’t want to change it,” or if the offenderatti start making a stink every time a word they don’t like pops up in the list.
For them, if you’re worried about your IT folk checking the *titles *of threads for naughty words (but not the content of the page you open?), perhaps the SDMB controls will never be strong enough (at least for visiting the Pit page; don’t know about other forums).
Another way around the concern is that greasmonkey script posted a few weeks ago that would turn innanities like “lets go into the whatever and throw whatever” into something less inane. IIRC, you can put any text string in there and have it replaced with something else.
golf clap
Well, admittedly, that was a departure from my usual moderation policy, which is “Don’t do any work if you can possibly avoid it.” However, the OP’s request caught me in a moment of uncharacteristic generosity. Plus, I wanted to use that line about ending sexism in North America.
To be clear, I don’t personally have any particular objection to the word “cunt.” People are free to use it in their thread titles if they want, at least in the Pit. Provided, as noted above, they aren’t using it to refer to other posters, per Ed’s requirements. This title change should not be regarded as a change in moderation policy. Especially the one about me not working.
Hahahahahaha! We’re wearing him down. Another 20 years and we’ll be able to say “fuck off” again. Hahahahahaha!
Yeah, but by then you’ll be pushing 30.
greasemonkey would do nothing for the IT department - as it only modifies content AFTER it reaches the users PC.
IT Guy - "why are you looking up stuff about dicks and cunts on a dope message board?
User - “No - Im looking up stuff related to puppies and kittens on a fact based forum”.
I think IT will win.
Thanks for the response.
Imagine how crazy they’re going to be trying to figure out what tittles are.
Oh, and nitpick: cunt, technically, is an obscene word, not a profane one.
You’re right about how the script functions, of course.
I lack an IT department here (or, rather, I’m the fucking hall monitor), so I’m far from up on policies and practices. I’m not sure I fully understand the concern. There are IT departments that monitor keywords on the subforum main page—which could get a Doper in trouble—but do not monitor keywords within threads the Doper opens? That makes no sense to me.
That is, if the Doper’s IT department is monitoring keywords, and the Doper is intentionally going to the Pit (and presumably opening threads), then why would the IT department stop looking at keywords?
And if for some reason the IT department was only looking at thread titles, then why did the Doper open one with an IT-forbidden word in the title? And what does that Doper make of all the other profanity in titles—is they’re IT department as prissy as the Dope vis-a-vi naughty words?
I’m sure there’s a :smack:-worthy answer to all this that I’m overlooking…
Some would say a profound one.
If the IT department is ‘filtering’ or ‘scanning’ the http traffic at all - or using a ‘net nanny’ type of service that intercepts/reviews/alerts while on the network - they will see the original cuntent - it won’t matter what the end user ‘sees’ - the IT department will be aware that you have visited a site that contains whatever keywords they are looking for. Its not just tittles, its also the individual posts and even the cocking behind the scenes (content the end user may never be aware of - think of ‘meta’ information embedded in teh page - alt tags for images, keywords for search engines, etc)
They have no idea if the viewer is seeing it or not - or if there is any ‘intent’ on the part of the user - they (the IT department) simply see all of the traffic and filter/alert accordingly.
(In case you were not aware, you can intercept traffic between your computer and any/all websites - unless it is encyrpted, it is very simple for an IT guy to reconstruct every bit that transpired).
Right, that’s pretty straightforward. My original confusion/am-I-missing-something stemmed from the idea that we shouldn’t have naughty words in thread titles, because those are an “easy marker the the computer geeks at work to see if you’ve been up to no good on the internets.” Anyone who goes to the Pit and opens a thread is likely to find santorums of profanity, so the preference to avoid them in titles makes no sense to me. I guess I can see asking for it in MPSIMS or something like that where most threads you expect to be much nicer language-wise, but the Pit?
And isn’t the flyover text–often containing profanities–part of the metadata too? Even if the user visitied the Pit to see the scuttlebut but not open anything, they’re just as fucked.
So am I missing something and banning profanity from titles would make a measurable difference to Dopers’ job retention?
not missing anything at all - sorry that I went overboard in the explanation of what an IT department might do.
The only reason to ban them in titles is that, arguably, thats the only place a browsing doper has no choice in the content - clicking into a thread in the pit ‘all bets are (partially) off’ as to what language might be found - but if a user just clicks the forum to view thread titles… well…
The assumption is that a boss walking by won’t notice an occasional “shit-head” or “2nd-cousin-fucker” in a title on the forum intro page – it’s a long page with lots of writing. If we had a situation where the vast majority of threads on the front page had such titles, we might need to do something, since then we’d fall into the NSFW category. [If you don’t know what that means, see our FAQ]
Tittles and jots are from Matthew 5:18:
Tittles are the little crowns on Torah letters, tiny strokes of the pen. [/ignorance fought] 