Improvement of Name Censorship

[Fuzzbucket]

But we do know the OP's issue was solved by appealing to TJ - which doesn't get us any further ahead on censoring names in general... Unless TJ has changed something - in which case it would be good if he'd tell us.

[KuroYukia]

Speaking of censoring names... I fully agree something has to be done

 

Someone has named their little dead dragon "Pile of cowdung" pretty sure that should have been denied

 

Though like others I found a scroll with a TON, about 20 names the censor shoulda caught. Instead it never did, the words were homophobic, racial and just sicko. Luckily the Mod handled things

 

But it is a machine and can mess up at times, the random codes are funny, though inappropriate as well, and allowing people to chose swear words and the F-bomb could get the site in trouble if a few parents wanted it shut down due to it. Kinda funny though there was a Mistletoe dragon with the code mzsex and thats just an example.

 

Censor really needs fixed to notice names reminds me of AOL and getting away with things..... so many bad names I could figure out.

[Fuzzbucket]

Someone has named their little dead dragon "Pile of cowdung" pretty sure that should have been denied

Good grief - WHY. That is TOTALLY non-censorable. I wish I'd thought of it !

 

Though like others I found a scroll with a TON, about 20 names the censor shoulda caught. Instead it never did, the words were homophobic, racial and just sicko. Luckily the Mod handled things

And that works fine. Report names you see that offend. But REALLY - "the pen is mightier" ?? THAT is the area where issues lie !

 

Codes are non-censorable - because most are automatically generated.

 

 

[AnanoKimi]

Bleh sensitiveness. I can understand that certain words are a bit more triggering than others to some, I get that really... but that does not mean the site must cater to every sensitive word one might see. What makes you uncomfortable could be fine for many, many others and as such if you have a personal dislike for a certain word due to what it is (Such as cow dung) then that is all you and not the site.

 

Given slurs, racist statements or words, derrogatory statements or words, etc, those should be censored. I could list or link a list of offensive words that should be automatically censored as they are. Let me state that again as they are. Not with spaces, punctuations, or other alphanumeric replacements. Pen is should not be censored as a form of Penis. If it does not directly say Penis, then do not censor it. If whatever system or code you use cannot compute that pen is does not equal penis, then remove that word from its list of words to censor and leave it up to the community to catch and report these words.

 

Take in the context of the word and how it is used, if its bad enough personally report it, if the mod deems its use is alright then too bad. Words should be censored as is and nothing more, nothing less. There are far, far more offensive words than 'cow dung', both singular or grouped together so really we need to take a look at the word, know what it means, see how its used and then contemplate whether it is report worthy or not.

[Fuzzbucket]

I can't see a problem with the word penis, actually. But it can be a problem, just looking at spaces - IF that is to be auto-censored - you get around it with p-e-n-i-s or p e n i s....

 

And there can be FAR worse names with no noxious words in - what about - say - Kill Gays. Surely not censorable, but FAR more horrid than Scunthorpe, or anus...

 

Far better to leave the name thing reportable rather than autoable, no ?

[Shienvien]

I could list or link a list of offensive words that should be automatically censored as they are.

Problem is, most of those list contain "slurs" that either aren't publicly known, aren't actual slurs, et cetera, et cetera.

 

And indeed, something needs to be done with the censorship, as it is too harsh at the time being. I also support making approach to not blatantly obvious ... things more lax. As it stands, the site has a lot of foreign members, and members that are fairly young or old or in general not aware of *all* the slurs and swearwords out there. I occasionally am genuinely concerned that my names - which are either nonsense fantasy stuff or random words in my native language - might get a dragon killed or worse, get all those hundreds of names removed or cause account closure.

 

And then there are things which are appropriate in the given context - such as naming a dragon about whom you have a headcanon of them being gay "Gay [something-or-other]", or calling your zombie dragon "[something-or-other] the Damned" ... damned as in cursed.

 

Far better to leave the name thing reportable rather than autoable, no ?

Yes.

[olympe]

Far better to leave the name thing reportable rather than autoable, no ?

Agreed. Because people do know the difference between "The Pen Is", which shouldn't be censored, and "P-e-n-i-s", which (maybe) should be - if you want that word censored at all.

 

 

Of course, there's always the matter of interpretation. There's one user who names all their dragons "SS' dragonnamehere", with SS probably being a shortened version of their username. However, here in Germany, SS has a very different connotation (Schutzstaffel, paramilitary unit founded by Hitler).

Edited May 21, 2015 by olympe

[Lurhstaap]

I just want to note for people who are worried? DC as a site is NOT going to disappear because some parent or whomever sees a naughty word and gets upset. That simply does not and cannot happen in the United States, which is where DC is based. Yes, people living in certain repressive countries (if they censor site access over bad words IMO that is repressive) may lose ACCESS to the site. And that does suck. But it's not something TJ can or should be expected to have any control over, and it is NOT the same as the actual site itself going down. Again, that CAN'T HAPPEN. TJ has the right to fill his site with profanity if he wants to. It's a privately owned website. He obviously -doesn't- want to do that, for his own reasons. But if he DID choose to, nothing and no one could do a thing about it. Which is, IMO, as it should be.

 

I do agree that the censor is pointless and overpowerful. Honestly I am philosophically opposed to censorship. I believe people reject words because they can't deal with the ideas behind those words and rejecting the word itself allows people not to have to deal with the idea. As uncomfortable as some ideas are, I get that urge, but that doesn't make it healthy or good for us to indulge it. We need to face and deal with things, including things we find disturbing or uncomfortable. Remove the censor. Let us manage our own scrolls like adults. If we want to have profane dragons names, that's not hurting anyone else.

 

I mean, if people like me can collect dragons and breed stuff like the one linked in my sig ('vulgar/rude codes wanted') what exactly is the point? Yes, most codes are randomly generated, but so what? Some random visitor to the site won't know that. And the prize code is NOT randomly generated, so why was that allowed? The policy is inconsistent and IMO should be scrapped. If we REALLY want to ban certain words and ideas here, let that be a mod job. Autocensorship is always a bad idea until and unless a good AI is developed that can actually tell the difference between Scunthope and... you know.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[AnanoKimi]

Fuzz, Shienvien, and Lurstahp put it perfectly. I see no reason for auto censorship and really feel that if a word or phrase bothers you then report it your self, honestly whichever mod takes a look at it has to set aside their own prejudice of that word and take into account if it is being contextually used in am insulting or derogatory manner.If no then the word is fine. Thats it. If the person has an issue with that word in that dragon's name, then too bad remember the scroll and don't ever look at it again. I mean honestly I think some people are a little too sensitive or easily offended and need to get away from that. Of course there are always going to be words and phrases that will be bad, not because of personal opinion but because they are insulting or derogatory to a certain class, race, gender, or religious group or set of people and really those are the ones we need to look out for. We cant censor phrases like "Kill gays" or "The holocaust was a lie" or "n-words should die" you cant, and it should be up to the community to keep an eye out for things like that, where a word is contextually being used to attack, insult, or degrade someone or something.

[Ansela Jonla]

I tried to put "Fasciitis" in a Fever's name earlier (as in Necrotizing fasciitis (wiki that at your peril)), but I couldn't save the name. I'm guessing the "Fasci" letter string was what was disallowing it, without regard for what the whole word actually was.

[dragongrrl]

I tried to put "Fasciitis" in a Fever's name earlier (as in Necrotizing fasciitis (wiki that at your peril)), but I couldn't save the name. I'm guessing the "Fasci" letter string was what was disallowing it, without regard for what the whole word actually was.

Fasci is not disallowed. I have Fascinations, Fascinating Allure and Crimson Fascination on my scroll.

 

I suspect someone already has Fasciitis on their scroll.

[Ansela Jonla]

Fasci is not disallowed. I have Fascinations, Fascinating Allure and Crimson Fascination on my scroll.

 

I suspect someone already has Fasciitis on their scroll.

I was trying to use it as a surname, not the entirety of the name.

[Tehya Faye]

Fascii is allowed. Once you add a "t" to it the name is no longer allowed, though. No idea why.

 

Edit: Apparently Ciit is bad. I'm not getting any results in Google for it that look negative, so I have no idea why this is the case. Actually, maybe TJ was worried about CIit? The I looks like a lowercase l on the site itself.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Tehya Faye

[Raistlin24]

Actually, maybe TJ was worried about CIit? The I looks like a lowercase l on the site itself.

This is probably the reason, because the opposite (two l instead of two i) is not allowed either.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Raistlin24

[AnanoKimi]

And it brings us right back round to the point of leave censorship reportable and not make it auto. Auto censorship sucks.

[AGYK]

Suggestion: drop the censor entirely. The site has reporting functionality, because TJ enabled it for messages sent during this past Christmas event. Take that reporting functionality and extend it to every dragon, as follows:

 

Give us the option to report names. Give each user a report "strength" which can vary, say, from 0-100, and starts at 50. Let a report where the mod agrees there's a problem increase the user's report strength by 1, and a report where the mod disagrees there's a problem decrease the user's report strength by 1. Sort reports by the report strength of the users submitting them, so users with high report accuracy get their reports looked at much quicker than users with low report accuracy. Ban users with a report accuracy of 0 from reporting anything else (the assumption being that if you manage to have 50 unhelpful reports in a row, you're probably trolling or mass-reporting someone because you have a personal vendetta).

[AnanoKimi]

Suggestion: drop the censor entirely. The site has reporting functionality, because TJ enabled it for messages sent during this past Christmas event. Take that reporting functionality and extend it to every dragon, as follows:

 

Give us the option to report names. Give each user a report "strength" which can vary, say, from 0-100, and starts at 50. Let a report where the mod agrees there's a problem increase the user's report strength by 1, and a report where the mod disagrees there's a problem decrease the user's report strength by 1. Sort reports by the report strength of the users submitting them, so users with high report accuracy get their reports looked at much quicker than users with low report accuracy. Ban users with a report accuracy of 0 from reporting anything else (the assumption being that if you manage to have 50 unhelpful reports in a row, you're probably trolling or mass-reporting someone because you have a personal vendetta).

I like this, I like this very much. This is the better solution to all of this.

[Vampyre]

Wanted to name my dragon 'Et Tu Brute' (he's a brute dragon) it said the name was taken. Tried adding an extra space in the beginning and it did the message about inappropriate characters.

 

 

This censor is like a drunk 1950s nun >.<

 

[Herk]

Wanted to name my dragon 'Et Tu Brute' (he's a brute dragon) it said the name was taken. Tried adding an extra space in the beginning and it did the message about inappropriate characters.

 

 

This censor is like a drunk 1950s nun >.<

That actually has nothing to do with the censor but with disallowed characters. You can't use "?" in a name and you can't use spaces as first or last character. The wording "inappropriate" is a bit misleading.

 

Try adding two spaces instead of one BETWEEN words and you should be fine.

[Vampyre]

That actually has nothing to do with the censor but with disallowed characters. You can't use "?" in a name and you can't use spaces as first or last character. The wording "inappropriate" is a bit misleading.

 

Try adding two spaces instead of one BETWEEN words and you should be fine.

Tried that it was taken and of course dashes aren't allowed in beginning either -.- Had to use my scroll name just to find a version that was allowed and wasn't hideous. Wish it wasn't one dragon per name. But mainly they need a better censor and a report feature. I bet the word 'suck' will be disallowed too.

[Natayah]

I haven't run into any issues with the auto-censor yet, but I'm certainly concerned if any computer program is killing dragons on its own accord. I'm all about appreciating funny codes and punny and cheeky names, but I also make sure that there is nothing that would cause a parent watching their child's dragon screen to freak out.

 

I mean, naming your dragons things like "Steal Your Parents Drugs and Eat Them" or "Just Die And Make Us Happy" would be a lot worse than anything that censor seems to be stopping with its use of misspellings and spaces included, and these would be reported by people who saw them (or at least reported for potential review by a mod).

[Sundew]

I can understand why censorship regardless of space placement was implemented, since people can name their dragon "P o t a t o" and could easily replace those letters with those of a censor-worthy word.

 

I don't think this is a clause that should direct the entire censorship system, however. As others have pointed out, it removes words and phrases that are completely innocent. A report feature for names is much more convenient and reasonable; instant death for a misspelled word is overkill.*

 

*Pun absolutely intended.

[Firebirdwyvern]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but sometimes a name has different meanings in different languages. I try to avoid using names that will lead to questionable spelling (namely the names I want seem to be chosen already...I hate that).

 

But...it doesn't take into account of the meaning of the word.

[Dragon_Arbock]

I do think the auto sensor is awful and needs to be dealt with.

 

However.. the idea of someone just being able to flag my dragons in its place makes me nervous, as you get those people who for whatever reason just want to cause trouble by false-flagging everyone and everything.. I just don't know.

 

And yeah.. someone already mentioned about the prize dragon- in light of that it almost feels like there's no point to having a sensor if stuff like that already exists.

[AnanoKimi]

I do think the auto sensor is awful and needs to be dealt with.

 

However.. the idea of someone just being able to flag my dragons in its place makes me nervous, as you get those people who for whatever reason just want to cause trouble by false-flagging everyone and everything.. I just don't know.

 

And yeah.. someone already mentioned about the prize dragon- in light of that it almost feels like there's no point to having a sensor if stuff like that already exists.

Somewhere along this thread it was mentioned that some for of user based review system similar to that of descriptions but open to the user base to flag could be implemented. A user would be given a set of points for every correct flag they made and deducted points for every false flag they made. Mods would look over those user flags and check on them to ensure they are indeed warranted flags and if so report it to TJ to deal with.

 

So you would start at 0 and for every correct flag made you would gain 1+ point. The more correct flags you make the more points you earn, your limit being 100+. At 100+ it would be made obvious that you aren't flagging just to mess someone up. If people false flag they would loose points, the limit being 100-. at 100- you would be banned from even trying to flag anything because it is obvious it is not being done on good intention. Of course if you make a mistake on a flag you would loose a point but it would only count completely against you until you reach 100- but beingin the negative will make your flags seem like less urgent as opposed to someone in the positive.

 

So yeah.