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Profanity Problems


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If you think that recent events at a certain site, or some of the odd asterisking we get here constitutes annoying PC-ness, then look here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5031156.stm

I suffer from this exact problem a lot - I run a couple of email discussion forums to do with education - and every few days some council or other bans a message for 'profanity' - the classic being a message about a 108-year old Chinese man who had just completed a degree - and we never found out what had offended the filters in that one.

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I ususally put a few practise exercises/games on the school website for my pupils and one day the 4emes came in complaining that they hadn't been able to access a particular exercise because it had been blocked for "inappropriate content". It turned out that the title was upsetting the filters. It was called "exercising is hard work".

 

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Dick's posting reminds me of a friend's landlady whose son was building a shed. Each morning at breakfast she reported on the progress of her son's erection in the garden. "According to her, it got bigger every day," my friend reported disingenuously.

The Council statement in the link is pretty unconvincing:

"A Rochdale Council spokesman said: 'The software that protects the council's e-mail system from spam and other offensive material is not designed by the council and we do not control which words are blocked.'"

What kind of software did they buy that doesn't allow their IT geeks to customise it?
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Having the misfortune (Grin![;-)] to have been deeply involved in technology for many years, I am becoming quite sick and tired of the same old dumb excuses. "Computer error", oh yes; sure. Digital systems tend to either work or not work.

One of the main problems is what I call the Monkeys in Charge of the Rocket Syndrome; i.e., take pretty smart tech kit and then give it to idiot users like local authorities. It has never changed since the mid 60s.............

Smart filters are customisable as Contextual Filters, otherwise (as the early attempts found) any county such as Middlesex, Essex etc was blocked. Any user who claims lack of control is thus either an idiot or a liar or plain lazy! Or, of course, all three.[:P]

One of the best early stories (true) was about the bloke who went abroad to work for six months and closed up his house; having firstly advised all the utility people. It was the happy days before standing charges.

When he returned, he found loads of rude letters from the electricity board and a summons.

Try as he might he couldn't quite see how he could pay a bill for £ 0 0S 0D.

Eventually in final desperation - having had endless telephone conversations with them and having written endless letters and having achieved absolutely zero, he sent off a cheque for £ 0 0S 0D and some moron entered nothing as £000.00.00.00 into the system, whereupon it chuntered out a receipt and cleared the account!

Clever bit of programing![:-))]

 

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Before I left my last "proper" job, our French marketing manager was replaced by head office, by another Frenchman, who really was called Monsieur Tourette. Even he found it vaguely amusing when he arrived to hear that he'd been christened Mr ******ing Tourette by the staff.

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KKK .........

Forum - thought you'd disappeared anyway

Football - forget it

Big Brother - give it a rest & spare me pls.

 

If you really need telling what to do for the Summer, then just relax with the red stuff / husband / parties. Much healthier.

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