# vBulletin and unintentional censoring of naughty words **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166 "2002-12-27T15:05:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/1 "2002-12-27T15:05:36Z")
Thankfully, we don’t use the auto-censor feature of vBulletin on this board. But some boards do use it, and this leads to the accidental censoring of URLs like [http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk](http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk) because of the embedded naughty word. You can’t even use vB code to mask the URL; the censor will mangle the link anyway. Any ideas how to make a working link to Scunthorpe (whatever that is) when the auto censor is on duty? Is there a web site or utility that lets you make intermediate links that will forward you to the desired destination? ---
**Author:** ![malaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/2 "2002-12-27T15:51:51Z")
You’re a forum member at [http://host.randi.org/vbulletin/](http://host.randi.org/vbulletin/) ? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![malaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/3 "2002-12-27T15:54:40Z")
D’oh! Nevermind… Found you [url=http://host.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11612&perpage=40&pagenumber=2[here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/4 "2002-12-27T16:14:31Z")
There is a site somewhere where one can post a link and then link to that site; others have posted this where apostrophes and similar problems have garbled a link, and hopefully one of them will be by to answer that. For the record, what I’d suggest doing on the Pizza Parlor, where I _am_ an Admin. and which has the “censor” thing enabled, is to post the link with automatic parsing of URLS turned off and an asterisk in place of the vowel, suggesting to people that they C&P the URL in their browser and replace the vowel: > [@](#): > > www.thisissc\*[nthorpe.co.uk](http://nthorpe.co.uk) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/5 "2002-12-27T16:52:14Z")
[Great pit thread on this very subject.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=112885&highlight=bloody+contact) Haj ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/6 "2002-12-27T18:13:08Z")
My suggestion would be to use an escaped version of the URL. Essentially, the HTTP standard allows any character to be represented by an escape sequence consisting of a percent sign followed by the character’s ASCII value in hex; for example, %7E in an URL is exactly equivalent to ~, and both the user agent and the HTTP server are required to treat them as exactly the same thing. If you don’t know ASCII by heart (most people don’t), [this page](http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm) has a conversion script to generate escape sequences. If you escape one of the characters _c_, _u_, _n_, or _t_ in the above URL, it should avoid triggering autocensoring, while pointing to the same location. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/7 "2002-12-27T18:37:56Z")
> [@](#): > > …an asterisk in place of the vowel, suggesting to people that they C&P the URL in their browser and replace the vowel: I thought this was a perfectly acceptable work-around, and I suggested it right off the top of my head. But some grumps just can’t be pleased, so I was hoping there might be a better fix. And yep, it’s the Randi board. Unfortunately I don’t hold an admin position on a vBulletin site, or I’d experiment. The site I admin uses YaBB software. **Some Guy** , it took me a while to figue out how to do what you’re suggesting, but figure it out I did. That conversion script thingy didn’t work, I put in a C and it gave me a C as an answer. I had to dig up the character set pages to find out that a C can be represented by “& # 6 7”. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/8 "2002-12-27T18:41:51Z")
Okay escaping doesn’t work. I just tried it on my YaBB board and it turned “[http://www.thisiss](http://www.thisiss) & # 6 7 [unthorpe.co.uk](http://unthorpe.co.uk)” into "[http://www.thisissthingyhorpe.co.uk](http://www.thisissthingyhorpe.co.uk). Bah. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/9 "2002-12-27T19:45:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > \*\*Any ideas how to make a working link to Scunthorpe (whatever that is) when the auto censor is on duty? Is there a web site or utility that lets you make intermediate links that will forward you to the desired destination? \*\* [www.tinyurl.com](http://www.tinyurl.com) [www.makeashorterlink.com](http://www.makeashorterlink.com) ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/10 "2002-12-27T20:12:06Z")
WooHoo! Thanks **Joey**. This thread can be closed, if it pleases the powers that be. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/11 "2002-12-27T21:08:31Z")
&#NUM; is a HTML character escape sequence. It’s not the same thing as the HTTP escape syntax. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/12 "2002-12-27T21:43:08Z")
Yeah, for that you’ll want to use %\. So a C would be %43, or %63 for a little c. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/13 "2002-12-27T21:44:13Z")
Oh, and here’s a [nifty chart](http://www.december.com/html/spec/ascii.html). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/14 "2002-12-27T22:06:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > \*\*WooHoo! Thanks **Joey**. This thread can be closed, if it pleases the powers that be. \*\* Why? What’s the appeal of closing threads? I really want an answer. Why do some people always want to close perfectly good threads? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/15 "2002-12-27T22:16:07Z")
If escaping out part of the URL is a hassle for ya, you could make use of [www.makeashorterlink.com](http://www.makeashorterlink.com) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/16 "2002-12-27T22:23:18Z")
I agree. Who’s to say nothing more of interest can be added to a thread? I never understood that. ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/17 "2002-12-27T22:23:41Z")
[hijack] > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*Why? What’s the appeal of closing threads? > > I really want an answer. Why do some people always want to close perfectly good threads? \*\* I don’t know, but it irks me no end. I know of one board that has a nifty hack so that the “prune” feature only deletes closed threads. This is a neat concept that keeps ongoing conversations from being deleted, yes, but it means that any poster who starts a new thread must monitor that thread _even after people have stopped posting_, and report it to the mods for closing once two weeks have passed since the last post. Insane. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/18 "2002-12-27T22:33:48Z")
Is there any easy way to find a particular web page’s underlying . . . er . . . number thingie? You know, the ones that go 123.456.789.001. If there is, you could post that instead of the text url. ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/19 "2002-12-27T22:38:52Z")
IP address? Yes, just ping it. But not all webpages have their very own IP. For example, I run a webhosting business, and if you pinged one of my customers, the IP would come back as the address for our website, not theirs. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166/20 "2002-12-27T22:50:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doghouse Reilly \* > \*\*Is there any easy way to find a particular web page’s underlying . . . er . . . number thingie? You know, the ones that go 123.456.789.001. If there is, you could post that instead of the text url. \*\* Define ‘easy’. Many computers have a program called “nslookup”, which you can run - unfortunately for those used to modern windowing systems it’s a command line tool. You run it like this: ```auto nslookup www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk ``` and it gives you something like ```auto Server: foo.bar.quux.com Address: 192.168.1.12 Non-authoritative answer: Name: www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk Address: 62.189.74.93 ``` You can then use that number (62.189.74.93) in your URL instead of the hostname. It’s not perfect (if the site uses load balancing, or moves because they switch ISPs, then you may lose.) In addition, it may fail completely if the host is a ‘virtual host’ - many computers serve many web sites. In the case of virtual hosting the same IP address is used, but based on the name you ask for it gives you a different web page - it’s like calling a small business and having to ask “Is Bob there?” The receptionist gives you a different person than if you ask “Is Alice there?” There are nslookup gateways on the internet, so you can do this from a web browser, for example [a2z internet](http://www.a2zinternet.net/ip.php) has one. However, they are not super simple to use as far as I’ve seen. I’d try the “%63” escape sequence for the c in Scunthorpe and see if that helps. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vbulletin-and-unintentional-censoring-of-naughty-words/145166.md?page=2)