Request for clarificaion

[Swissbarry]

In the Postbag section, there has been some discussion recently about censorship on the forum.  I raised the topic because an article I submitted about boules had the word c o c h o n n e t (the correct French word for the jack used in the game) censored throughout, by removing the first few letters and replacing them with asterisks.  There was a suggestion that this might be because posts are automatically scanned for expletives by a computer, and people cited examples of innocent words which had been censored (e.g. M a r s e i l l e), but none of this would explain why******honnet should be deemed unacceptable.  Nor would it explain why moderators (are they now called Gurus?) should not be the arbiters of what is acceptable, rather than a machine.  I would appreciate some guidance in order that I can avoid further censorship and embarrassment.

I would also like to ask why I am termed a Junior member when I have been contributing to the site for well over two years, and where all my previous postings have gone.  If they have disappeared, would I be permitted to re-submit them? I have had several private messages asking where people might find them.

Thanks.

PS.  Don't you think I'm being remarkably polite and restrained?

 

[Russethouse]

The person best placed to give you an answer is away until Thursday - I'm sure he will be able to explain it better than I

[Will]

I'm sure, as Gay says, James will be able to give an answer when he returns. We do need a machine unfortunately as we moderators are all unpaid idiots and not even we can be on duty permanently, blue pencil (or delete button) poised.

Because the same 'engine' drives other forums run by Living France's publisher, the rather unconvincing argument that we are all responsible adults and do not need censorship holds little water. We have to all come down to the lowest common denominator of East Anglian residents or amateur pilots. However this particular machine annoys even us. It is convinced, insistent even, however much we try to persuade it otherwise, that anything to do with male birds is really just a gratuitous use of one of the terms for the male organ, even if only the first three letters are used. Yet, possibly in deference to the Eastern Daily Press, we can write about Scunthorpe to our heart's content, while Arsenal is now accptable (it wasn't always).

I do hope your previous posts are not lost. When the forum software was changed, all the old posts migrated to their new home but a lot got lost, flying round in the super-large servers, looking for a forum to which they could be attached. Most of these can be found using the advanced search, and when I have a bit of spare time I'll try it.

Though if you still have your old posts, which always looked carefully and lovingly crafted rather than just dashed off on the screen like us careless ******s do, please feel free to re-submit them (as long as they do not contain the letters c, o and c without spaces between). Alternatively, it might be a good idea to start a 'Swiss Barry Reference section' in the FAQs. What do you think?

[Teamedup]

Swissbarry I may the label guru, but am most certainly not a moderator. You too could apply to become one, if I haven't misremembered posters were invited to apply at one time.

And re that guru thing , well that is just because I am a causeuse, no more no less. The thing was that on the odd occassion when the system has blipped many many posters lost their number of posts, and for whatever reason I didn't.

[Ex Forum Admin]

Yes, there is a built-in censorship on certain words but the software doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between rude words and others for some reason. This, I have been told, will be improved considerably with the update of the software.

The titles given to users are based on the number of posts and again are a default of the software. When LF was sperate from the other forums we had our own but now we are included as an integral part of all Archant forums it uses the default settings.

Since the complete crash of the software back in Oct 2003 all posts disappeared. Since this time the forum has gradually built up again and we have moved servers 3 times. Most users posts were moved with the server upgrades but it seems that archived posts, although present, are not in the correct place. Also some post counts went missing after the software change late last year to a completely new software.

I have searched the system for 'Swiss Barry' to see if your details/posts were stored under a slightly different permutation of your current username but cannot find any record, so alas I think they are gone.

Regards

James

 

 

 

[Ex Forum Admin]

coco

Coco

Cockerel

Change has now been made for future posts.

[chocccie]

 

you people are all MAD!  I love it!!