# Most idiotic example of self-censorship I've ever seen **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 25, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559 "2011-09-25T15:55:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/1 "2011-09-25T15:55:15Z")
I was absentmindedly reading a thread in a motorcycle forum. A guy was having fuel related problems, and everytime “petcock” came up, it was either “petc o c k” or “pet\*\*\*\*”! I think the first example was from a poster who worked around the dumbness, and the second was auto-censorship. I’m more saddened than amused. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/2 "2011-09-25T16:06:13Z")
I know of a couple other forums that do the same. It’s one way to prevent porn spam. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/3 "2011-09-25T16:07:45Z")
This is probably most suited to the Pit. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/4 "2011-09-25T16:08:18Z")
The English town of Scunthorpe is often censored by automatic censoring software. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/5 "2011-09-25T16:18:04Z")
I once had board software correct “sniggered” to “s{Ban me!}ed”. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/6 "2011-09-25T16:22:45Z")
> [@These are my own pants](#): > > The English town of Scunthorpe is often censored by automatic censoring software. Heh, I wanted to mention the town of Svaginahorpe. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/7 "2011-09-25T16:25:07Z")
That’s the [Scunthorpe Problem](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScunthorpeProblem). Gingerbeer, a UK lesbian messageboard, used to change ‘snigger’ to ‘sblackperson.’ Of course, this meant that everyone was immediately sblackpersoning all over the place, and the admin refused to change it for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/8 "2011-09-25T16:30:54Z")
Wizards of the Coast’s Gatherer website used to censor people’s comments on cards this way. A few of the stupider examples: - “Con\*\*\*ion”. They provided an easy system to link to the pages for other cards. Unfortunately this system didn’t work reliably because censoring the names of their own products breaks the links. - “\*\*\*anese”. Because “Jap” is apparently so offensive that they will censor “Japanese” to hide it. ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/9 "2011-09-25T17:46:03Z")
I seems like the software would just look for a space or punctuation afters the word. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/10 "2011-09-25T17:50:34Z")
> [@emcee2k](#): > > I seems like the software would just look for a space or punctuation afters the word. [Faggotcuntniggerdeer!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9xCWphV8s) ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/11 "2011-09-25T19:19:34Z")
Kinda makes my joke about my petcock seem almost irrelevant. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/12 "2011-09-25T19:55:35Z")
Used to post on a baseballs-related board at [nytimes.com](http://nytimes.com). the answer to a trivia question once was Jimmy Dykes. Several people tried in vain to post the answer. Finally someone tried out “Jimmy Dy8kes” or some such, and that worked. Also, we could not write anything like “Ted Williams hit .406 in one season…” The whole post would be blocked, spaces or no. And don’t get me started on the website called “HV Material Sex Change”… ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/13 "2011-09-25T20:05:46Z")
One I frequent used to flag certain words the admins arbitrarily didn’t like with short phrases instead of simple word replacement. “Mojo” became “I am unoriginal and unfunny; please put me out of my misery.” The cure becomes worse than the disease. Thankfully they changed all that. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/14 "2011-09-25T20:22:11Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Also, we could not write anything like “Ted Williams hit .406 in one season…” The whole post would be blocked, spaces or no. 😕 Is that a baseball thing? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/15 "2011-09-25T20:25:01Z")
Or a Yankees/Red Sox thing. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/16 "2011-09-25T20:29:37Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Used to post on a baseballs-related board at [nytimes.com](http://nytimes.com). > > the answer to a trivia question once was Jimmy Dykes. Several people tried in vain to post the answer. Finally someone tried out “Jimmy Dy8kes” or some such, and that worked. > > Also, we could not write anything like “Ted Williams hit .406 in one season…” The whole post would be blocked, spaces or no. > > And don’t get me started on the website called “HV Material Sex Change”… > [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > 😕 Is that a baseball thing? From **Ulf’s** post. “Ted William\*\*s hit \*\*.406 in one season…” Obviously, the censor software was quite delicate and had the vapors. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/17 "2011-09-25T20:29:46Z")
It’s an insanely stringent curse filter. > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > “Ted William_ **s hit** _ .406 in one season…” ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/18 "2011-09-25T20:37:55Z")
Similarly, I knew of a board where you couldn’t write a word like “identity”. Well, you could, but it would post as “iden\*\*\*y”. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/19 "2011-09-25T21:04:41Z")
The in-game profanity filter for the game City of Heroes (which you can fortunately turn off) among other silliness will censor “God” (but not Satan - amusing symbolism there) and “B5”. The latter causing some confusion when some people started discussing _Babylon 5_. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559/20 "2011-09-25T21:15:52Z")
The former administrators on another board I frequent were fond of imposing bad-words filters without any forethought, resulting in such oddities as the person with less-than-perfect eyesight who put on his “eyeglbuttes” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-idiotic-example-of-self-censorship-ive-ever-seen/597559.md?page=2)