rules clarification on swearing

[desquinn]

As some of the members that have been on here for a while will know, we had a spate of unhelpful posters that were swearing and generally making a nuisance of themselves. We created the post Use of inappropriate language which is linked to below to state what is acceptable and what was not and how people can express themselves. This was also part of the forum rules that everyone signed up to when they followed the community.

Our general rule is that if it can be said before the watershed on BBC1 then it should be ok on here but context and emphasis is important. We do not have a hard and fast list although we do refer to an OFcom list. But we do not want to put a list of all swear words on a post here to highlight what is and what is not acceptable. We have found that people that have issues with following this simple rule don't hang around for long.

The admin team are not there to have arguments about what is and what is not a swearword and there is a method of hiding cr*p words that are not suitable if you really must use them. Asterisk them out and they can be used. As with many rules they are not going to be perfect all the time but the admin team will assess and help where required. But if you are on your fifth warning then they may be less understanding. We tend to respond to Reported Posts so there is already someone that has raised a concern about the language before we look at it.

We will not accept bl**dy, h*ll, or cr*p unless they are asterisked like this. These were previously on the border of acceptable and upto moderator to asses the context, but unfortunately this needs to change.

The admin team do not want to be making edits about what someone is saying and will try to leave things as is. Normally, a slip of a key and someone is notified and that's all the admin team have to do. But when a user then tests the limits by going from severe language to milder swearwords then the rules end up changing. We as an admin team have seen this behaviour many times over the past year and we think this goes back to our troll user issue to at least some degree.

Therefore for clarity the rules end up changing ot be less flexible but in a way that will not affect 99% of users of this forum.

Inappropriate language: healthunlocked.com/fibromya...

Article about Ofcoms swear word list. Warning contains words that you may find offensive: look.co.uk/news/ofcom-offic...

Trolling: healthunlocked.com/fibromya...

[Mdaisy]

Thanks for clarifying Des - it's so easy to add an asterisk to a word to disguise it and still express yourself as you'd like to. To me this is an easy thing to do to keep all members happy and to lessen the impact of any offensive words. Simples !

[SusieJo1948 in reply to Mdaisy]

Thanks Daisy your a good person and funny and we learn things from you. I for one really appreciate the things you do. Love susiejo1948

[SusieJo1948]

Good job desquinn thank you swear words don't belong on here there are better things to say if your 😡upset. It doesn't have to be swear words even with the * everyone still knows what it means. Don't get me wrong I do use swear words. I've been known to *a few times but it still doesn't make it right. Thank You Love susiejo1948