Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-8846246-20160124191909/@comment-25814498-20160126183726

Is this a religious thing or just personal preference? Cause it seems to be taking censorship a bit far, not allowing "sh*t" or even ****.

Profanity in general is a very large part of most peoples idiolect, and while it is not appropriate in all scenario's, such as a formal blog such as this, most people will know when to change their speech patterns in order to fit the topic at hand, and is a normal part of the human language. Swearing isn't just some vulgar thing spouted by idiots who don't know how to speak properly, and profanity is certainly a part of the english language, not just filler for sentences while the brain is trying to think of what to say next(I'm looking at you Travid).

They are a flexible and useful part of our language that can be used to emphasise a statement or phrase which cannot be done without swearing("what the hell!"/"That was fucking hilarious"), exclaim outrage("You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!") or to vent anger or tension("I'm sick of this shit!"). I realize that while most of these quotations I have used do not apply to a lot of things on formal wiki's, the rule you have set makes it bannable for people to socialize with each other on their talk pages for saying a word as tame as "crap" or "hell"(both of which you specifically prohibited in a reply), or even "cr*p" or "h*ll"!

Now, previously you said that vulgarity is not needed in a place of learning, such as this, and in this respect you are right. Profanity is completely unwarranted on an article for instance, and if a person were to specifically say on their profile/talk page for instance "swearing is not allowed on my talk page", that's alright too. But this wiki is not a completely formal environment, it's a social one too. If it wasn't, the Fun and Games Wall and blogs such as "CHEESY BABE AWARDS #2" wouldn't be allowed either.

Because of all the points I mentioned above, I don't believe you should be so strict/abrupt about your no swearing rule(I'd mention the stuff about this being a pretty mature game about bullying, suicide, insanity and murder, but that's already been said). People shouldn't be censored because of someone else's personal preferences or idiolects, and while my words may hold no weight as I this is my first post on the wiki, the message still stands. Instead I believe the rule should be changed to "No swearing on articles", or something of the like.