Use of language

On a recent thread, I wrote:

'But then again, all suppliers are ***** who are just out to dupe you...I guess'

The beginning and end letter have been removed by a moderator, I guess.

On another thread, I wrote the words 's***bay and s***pal'.

This has been pointed out as being inappropriate by OMG. Up until this morning, I would have disagreed, but then I recalled a long conversation I had a few months ago with Bogstandard about a totally different un-related subject, which triggered a word called 'arrogance' or a form of it, on my part, by using the words which I did. For this reason, I apologise for the use of these words in the treads concerned, and I thank OMG for bringing up this point.

Ketan at ARC.

Cleally you are not the messiah, but in fact are a very naughty boy. However I for one forgive you absolutely.

To the pure all is pure, and for the rest it does'nt matter.

best regards Paul aka Parvum

Hmmm

For some reason bad language in print is so much worse than when it is spoken. Something to do with the tone, context and emphasis maybe? ( Wasn't there a song line which went " It's not what you say but the way that you say it." ? ) I freely admit to using the xx****xx form from time to time to, perhaps, emphasise how I feel about something. The difficulty with posting here is that generally we don't know each other and it's all too easy to, quite unwittingly, cause offence. Such a problem is unlikely to occur in a face to face situation or amongst friends. I guess that if using the xx***xx form is offensive to some then I should stop doing it - this forum is about exchanging information and ideas and if folk get the wrong idea and take offense from my posts then I must either change or leave.

That leaves the problem of how to express those intangibles. Well, much as I dislike them, I guess the dreaded Smilies are probably the way.

If I'm cross , if I'm happy , if I'm surprised or if I'm joking they do qualify my words in a way that may be more acceptable than the xx******xx alternative.

Smilies - you are forgiven!

Regards

Norman

Norman...

I too hate USING smilies and other emotions..

I take the point about zz***tt being no less unacceptable to some { hence all} than the word its replacing..

heres hoping we don't get too hung up on this {or spelling and grammer} to end up excluding worth while comment..

Quite so Jason

Maybe we just all need to think a bit ( and re-read our own post) before pressing the "send" button - any comment that we make that offends someone else is counter productive and against the purpose of the forum.

N

I hate " smilies " and the like, also don't like xxxxx words in print,. If it can't be written down then don't use it at all. I seem to be good at offending people in print and face to face, the only good thing about getting old is I don't worry anymore.

Hello to all. Good afternoon.

It's good to see that a good portion of the participants are willing to not use those words in the forum, and more than that its representation with asterisks.
Mainly because, not being English my mother language, it's sometimes hard to me to understand what is written in the forum.
I want you to know that I appreciate the effort.
Greetings
Dias Costa

Hi

There again if you put it in CAPITALS you're accused of shouting so that won't do. Perhaps the answer is to use something like "add your own suitable expletive" or 'gosh', 'dash' or 'bother' but this kind of remark removes the impact. As it is the use of ***** has never bothered me as in itself it is meaningless but conveys a level frustration or annoyance felt by the person posting. After all if one does fill in the blanks with something that offends then one must be familiar with the word or phrase that offends , and a smiley just to round things off!!

Martin

PS

I would like to add that I don't approve of or like swearing or some of the other language that we have seen in the occasional post in this forum. Perhaps we should look at ****** as a set of "Extra Strong Exclamation Marks"

Edited By Martin W on 15/12/2013 15:50:50

Edited By Martin W on 15/12/2013 15:55:29

I shouldn't worry, Ketan. As they say in the plumbing world, at the end of the day it's all a load of water admission restraints.

Dennis Franklin

Edited By Stovepipe on 15/12/2013 16:34:18

Ketan ... I sincerely appreciate that apology.

As far as the forum guidelines are concerned, I think someone, with good intentions, has attempted to draw a line in the usual "middle ground" whereas I think that, logically it has to be one or the other - expletives are either acceptable here or they aren't and you either allow all or (hopefully) none.

I had recommended this forum to my thirteen year old great nephew, who was showing an interest, a few weeks back. When I saw some of the stuff that was happening here (albeit not frequently) I felt compelled to point it out to his Dad who promptly blocked the site from his son's computer. Some may think that was OTT. I personally don't, which may explain why I kicked off here. Not everyone here is an old fogey who's "been around".

And for those that feel it is difficult to properly express themselves without invoking such language ... well, I think that problem is all yours. Should the rest of us have to suffer the consequences?

It's like the weed versus flower argument to me. One man's expletive is another man's poetry and I must say that I think a well aimed word can add enormously to the impact and humour of what one is saying.

Martin.

What is an expletive ? What language does OMG's great nephew use when out of earshot (or webshot) of his parents ? He might explain to his great-nephew that clear precise English makes it easier to be understood, but that others may well use decidedly slovenly language.

Dennis

Agreed, Dennis.

The thirteen year olds that walk past my house have added enormously to my vocabulary.

Judging by the lyrics to some of the songs I know they listen to, then we might all need some protection from the language police.

Martin.

Hi

I see no offence in Ketan's remarks of 'slowbay/safebay' or 'slowpal/safepal' perhaps its the minds of the reader that damns them rather than the person who posts the comment !! If this goes much further then this forum is likely to be placing its 'Engine Management Unit' firmly up its own 'Exhaust Port'.

Perfectly PC comments I believe for an engineering forum.(Refrains from adding a smiley/emoticon)

Regards

Martin

Edited By Martin W on 15/12/2013 18:01:24

Edited By Martin W on 15/12/2013 18:02:44

I for one see no purpose in using expletives or symbols to replace such terms and find them grossly unnecessary and simply serve to convey a lack of ability to express oneself correctly. My grandson often sits and reads this forum with me and I find myself having to vet postings before I let him see them. If we are to attract a younger audience then we must all act responsibly to ensure endure that what is written is suitable for all ages of readership.

The fact that the youth of today use 'colourful' language is just another indication of the decline in our society and undermining of what is acceptable.

Simply piut, if you can't Say it without swearing or alluding to such phraseology, then don't say it at all.

Many of the ***** used (And those are on!y there as an indicitave example) can be read in several ways and convey different meanings depending on how they are replaced. Sour references to eBay or PayPal and the like are immature and serve no purpose here. I use both and have my share of good and bad but would not use derogatory terms to describe them, I may have used fleabag in the past simply because in the past reference to these entities have been moderated! The same has been applied to references to so called rival publications such as EIM but I see no purpose in doing so. They are valid entities and should be allowed their place in polite conversation.

Graeme

(Off the soapbox for now)

Anybody seen my knitting needles ?

lol

Gentlemen and of course ladies

Some of you will know this but the Model Flying ( RCM&E a sister magazine) website has a strict no offensive or insulting language rule. This is strictly enforced by the moderators if you transgress as I have, you get a polite message warning you about the rules, a second transgression gets you removed. I at first thought we are all big boys and live in the real world, but on reflection I have come to see the sense, as has been pointed out above we do have younger viewers and we should not be subjecting them to such language. They will no doubt learn the full gambit of swear words and insults that can be levied on our targets in the fullness of time. By all means have a rant but keep it within bounds. Oh and by the way a series of asterisks is counted by Model Flying as if the word is used.

Edited By Dusty on 15/12/2013 20:20:07

We do have a similar 3 hits system here

1. Polite word in your ear

2. Suspended for a period of time

3. Any repeat or other offence after the suspension and you are out

J

I think a website should have standards,

I wrote some other comments but.........had a rethink before sending. It's not hard to find the delete key.