h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hi here - what happens if I post a piece of Flash Fiction containing a common profanity or two ?

thanks - Langsandy

Hi there!

A grey area, this. Depends on the profanity. The Profanity Filter won't let you have certain words in an Entry in the first place, though which ones it objects to seems to shift all the time. 'Piss' seems not to bother it, nor 'shit' for some reason, whereas not only will it block the 'f'-word, it'll even block an 'f' followed by three asterisks.

So if you put that in an Entry and try to 'create' it, the filter will block it and tell you you need to change it.

Now, there are ways round that, but they're rather cumbersome: using tags in GuideML is one of them, or using other bits of code, where the letter 'f' is 'f' and so on - hardly worth the trouble in the end.

I suppose, in theory, someone could yikes it either way - but my advice would be give it a go and see what happens. If the filter tells you it won't let the word in question through, you can either come up with an alternative - 'f---' seems to work - or... well, lodge a protest!

The Profanity Filter has caused more aggravation, sulking, stormings out and heartache than any other innovation introduced to this site I can think of. Entries created when it wasn't in place, containing fairly mild profanity - 'bastard' was blocked at one stage - suddenly became uneditable overnight, leading to a good deal of frustration.

So, see if you can get it through the filter - if it gets through, then you're probably all right.

fired off Afterglow - must assume it was blocked