The Ark of the Covenant

[issy]

Recently a question regarding the wood from which the Ark of the Covenant was made was automatically censored so that the correct answer (which appears in the bible) could not be entered.

The answer was S space HITTIM WOOD.  This word is in the bible and totally innocent yet was cenored to produce ***tim Wood.  This makes a mockery of the whole site.

I can understand that people would find their way round using foul language but surely a dictionary is used before the censorship of a sequence of letters!

The word is in most dictionaries which I have looked at

[Quizmonster]

Dear Issy, Try writing about the type of watch we wear on our wrists, only call it by its normal name. You'll find that, too - unless they've now modified the system - contains a sequence of four letters starting and ending with 'T' that will not be acceptable.

[jno]

Issy, you're not posting from, er, Scanthorpe, are you?

[Quizmonster]

I've pointed out several times over the years that the thing is self-defeating. Presumably, it is in place to protect the young/innocent rather than any adults on the site, though I wouldn't approve of a free-for-all language-wise in any case! However, what it does is draw any such innocent eyes precisely to 'offensive' words, in circumstances where they would just have gone totally unnoticed! The biblical wood, the Humberside town and the watch are perfect examples of this occurring.

[Quizmonster]

Sorry...I shouldn't have included Scunthorpe in my last sentence, though it was also on the forbidden list here at one time.

[Fitzer]

The obscenity filter is almost certainly an American off the shelf package and as such is tuned to American English. I don't believe the four letter combination that can be seen as offensive in Scunthorpe is prevalent in America. Mind you I'm surprised it picks up on tango whisky alpha tango as this is a very English expression.

 

PS. there was an English poet (can't remember who) who believed that the aforementioned T word meant something along the lines of an occupant of a convent and merrily included it in a poem. No-one knew how to tell him and he died in ignorance. 

[issy]

Fitzer
Your comments intrigue me.
Many years ago I was in Singapore and was surprised one morning to read in the Straits Times an advert for a milk product called "Tango Whisky Alpha Tango" and one was exhorted to take it everyday.
I was at an exhibition on an English company's stand next to one from an American company. I pointed the advert out to one of the Americans who had never before seen the quoted word.
On explaining its English usage the American said " Oh!, You mean "Foxtrot Alpha November November Yankee"!
So much for censorship!

[Quizmonster]

Surely Americans use the five-letter 'F' to 'Y' word to mean the derri�re...ie the opposite side of a lady entirely from its British usage!

[jno]

The poet was Browning; there's a reference in one of his poems to 'old nuns' tw**s' - he seems to have thought it was some sort of hat or something. [I put in the asterisks myself, hope they survive]

[jno]

Oh, and re QM's post, which crossed with mine, the same is true of prat - originally meaning front bottom in British English but transferred to rear bottom in American - hence 'pratfall'. I'm not sure that the word alone means anything in modern American, and as far as I know it just means 'idiot' in British - can anyone confirm?

[brachiopod]

I think the filter on AB defaults to searching for banned words in any context. ie will remove that paticular string of letters.

When it was introduced there were uproars about the apparent indiscriminate censoring of innocent words - Scunthorpe being one example. Another frequent one in 'Music' is;

" blah blah some band's h1t single..." where the apostrophe 's' and the word 'hit' get censored.

I think there is some facility for programming in exceptions, such as;

"Remove 'c**t' unless surrounded by s-horpe" type thing, since this Northern town did used to get censored at first.

I don't think they've got round to adding many rule-exceptions to the list though.

[ Ps -sorry to hi-jack thread - but is anyone else having problems posting replies or questions today? Can't post any questions at all, so can't start new thread. If anyone could post this for me I'd be grateful !! This is also the only category that I seem to be able to post a reply - just keep getting errors on page - oh, and I am logged in! ]

[issy]

Many thanks for all the responses to my original question.
It would appear that the whole business of censorship on this site self defeating.
Censorship is in itself a means of controlling that which others do not wish to be published. Replacing censored words with a series of asterisks leads the enquiring mind to explore that which the asterisks were supposed to suppress.
All these 'asterisked' words are in dictionaries and are words in almost common usage. So who is being protected?
I could go on ad infinitum but you all know the arguments anyway.
I will finish by stating that censorship in any form defeats the purpose of this site.