POLL Foul & Offensive Language

[Okinawa]

We do not believe that foul and offensive language should be blocked or members removed from posting on the forum if it is used, as the latter (offensive language) cannot be defined by one person alone. That said, this forum is run in the form of a democracy.

Therefore, we have created this 30-day long poll so that everyone can voice their opinions, anonymously, in a vote.

How should we enforce foul and offensive content?

While this is an anonymous poll, feel free to chime in with other suggestions if the options you have aren't available.

Thank you,
Okinawa.Org

 

The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of Okinawa.Org.

[John]

We're all adults here... and, there are some times that warrant some foul language to accurately convey the tone.

If they're used in moderation, not directed at a member here, I believe that's fine. Once it is directed at a member, I think that's crossing the line.

Of course, not just that, excessive use should also be limited, but there's some flexibility in that... and if members don't like that, they can simply leave.

 

[Okinawa]

Thanks for voicing your opinion, @John. That's about where we personally here would align too. However, we'll keep taking more opinions and votes before finalizing that decision so that we're not later accused of bias (again)!

 

[BBZ]

only loses censor folks, if you are offended by words you don't belong on the internet

 

[Okinawa]

only loses censor folks, if you are offended by words you don't belong on the internet

The only problem here is the overuse of certain words as we would be penalized by the search engine algorithms, essentially losing traffic to other parts of our site, due to this.

This is why we proposed mirroring the same thread, with those words, into the "Recycle Bin" so that it is inaccessible by those not logged in. Acting on posts like this might be the action that we can take until we can mark an individual post invisible by guests in the same thread.

 

[BBZ]

The only problem here is the overuse of certain words as we would be penalized by the search engine algorithms, essentially losing traffic to other parts of our site, due to this.

This is why we proposed mirroring the same thread, with those words, into the "Recycle Bin" so that it is inaccessible by those not logged in. Acting on posts like this might be the action that we can take until we can mark an individual post invisible by guests in the same thread.

bullshit, stop making **** up. Just admit you want to be like all the other loony left losers and oppress peoples speech because you disagree with it, whatever

 

[Okinawa]

bullshit, stop making **** up. Just admit you want to be like all the other loony left losers and oppress peoples speech because you disagree with it, whatever

Can't do that because the left has majority and censors or suppresses sites with their algorithm. Most income we make comes from these authoritative sources. As such, since we do a lot of charitable works in Okinawa, we can't continue 100% free speech without a donor model.

 

[Bernice W]

Can't do that because the left has majority and censors or suppresses sites with their algorithm. Most income we make comes from these authoritative sources. As such, since we do a lot of charitable works in Okinawa, we can't continue 100% free speech without a donor model.

Maybe he just can’t admit that he doesn’t understand algorithms so he has to be unnecessarily aggressive.

 

[Okinawa]

Maybe he just can’t admit that he doesn’t understand algorithms so he has to be unnecessarily aggressive.

Possible, but we're here to educate.

We think that we've already found a solution as the majority are for free speech/moving to the Recycle Bin in order to prevent search engines from catching posts that can hinder our growth.

We'll most likely wrap a post in code that will show something along the lines of "this content is only readable by logged in members, sign in or sign up to unlock it" to those not logged in (as search engines can't log in) as well as any quote of that post further in the thread.

Okinawa.Org doesn't want to be penalized and lose out on traffic—from those seeking to compile an itinerary for places to visit on a trip, etc.—because of what members post in comments or on the forum, but, we also don't want to suppress the voices of our members either.

This approach is a happy medium as the content is available to anyone logged in and we aren't going to censor anything beyond that unless the majority is in favor of that.

 

[Bernice W]

Possible, but we're here to educate.

We think that we've already found a solution as the majority are for free speech/moving to the Recycle Bin in order to prevent search engines from catching posts that can hinder our growth.

We'll most likely wrap a post in code that will show something along the lines of "this content is only readable by logged in members, sign in or sign up to unlock it" to those not logged in (as search engines can't log in) as well as any quote of that post further in the thread.

Okinawa.Org doesn't want to be penalized and lose out on traffic—from those seeking to compile an itinerary for places to visit on a trip, etc.—because of what members post in comments or on the forum, but, we also don't want to suppress the voices of our members either.

This approach is a happy medium as the content is available to anyone logged in and we aren't going to censor anything beyond that unless the majority is in favor of that.

I understand. I just felt like you were trying to explain the why but he wasn’t interested in understanding. His response felt trollish.

I like the “content is only available....” solution.

 

[Okinawa]

I understand. I just felt like you were trying to explain the why but he wasn’t interested in understanding. His response felt trollish.

No, we don't believe so. However, we can't speak for the motive behind it though.

 

[Felix]

I am not sure that I follow what is the going on and I hope I understand the question. I have a short story first as I came here from other commenting places like, The Mainichi, Japan Today, but it's odd that most newspapers here in japan are cutting off commenting like you have here. As well as Yahoo and MSN, also AOL they have stopped their commenting on articles they have posted. All go through Facebook and others now but out of my experience if not all websites have a form of bad language that's not allowed to be posted. Try as you may to swear most sites or there mainframe editor usually block it out or put ^@!*() this stuff in place of the bad word you typed and this is done automatically. If this site has bad language problems just do like the big guys do with their pages &^%$$**()*^^%$& Get the picture!

 

[Okinawa]

I am not sure that I follow what is the going on and I hope I understand the question. I have a short story first as I came here from other commenting places like, The Mainichi, Japan Today, but it's odd that most newspapers here in japan are cutting off commenting like you have here. As well as Yahoo and MSN, also AOL they have stopped their commenting on articles they have posted. All go through Facebook and others now but out of my experience if not all websites have a form of bad language that's not allowed to be posted. Try as you may to swear most sites or there mainframe editor usually block it out or put ^@!*() this stuff in place of the bad word you typed and this is done automatically. If this site has bad language problems just do like the big guys do with their pages &^%$$**()*^^%$& Get the picture!

That would essentially be a vote for "censor specific words that are not FCC compliant" which would automatically replace words with asterisks * (with the ability to turn off comment filtering if you join).

Though, we aren't the big guys and can, and will, have everything up to a degree—i.e. filtered so Google can't see and rank us lower for other sections of our site—as we are proponents of the 1st Amendment.

That said, there's also a "leave all words intact as written by the author" option, which we would still intend on filtering from Google's eyes.

 

[Felix]

That would essentially be a vote for "censor specific words that are not FCC compliant" which would automatically replace words with asterisks * (with the ability to turn off comment filtering if you join).

Though, we aren't the big guys and can, and will, have everything up to a degree—i.e. filtered so Google can't see and rank us lower for other sections of our site—as we are proponents of the 1st Amendment.

That said, there's also a "leave all words intact as written by the author" option, which we would still intend on filtering from Google's eyes.

OHHHHH I understand I have to check the box? Tricky and funny, I just wanted to stay as a silent magority but I will check a box! I am not sure what you mean by Google filtering but in any case I imagine filtering is good because there are kids who are on the internet today and they like to watch daddy or mother on what their doing on their internet asking questions and the last thing a parent needs is their 10 year old child coming up to them asking what the word F__K means that they just texted on their phone or screen. I will check a box now.

 

[Okinawa]

Guests (including Google bot that crawls our site) will essentially not see these words. It's imperative that they don't, because not only can we lose ranking on, let's say, Okinawa Classifieds' listings, for an Off Topic Okinawa post containing these words, we could potentially lose advertisers and ad revenue (for those guests and members that opt-in to see fewer ads).

If Google won't be able to see it, kids won't either as they would essentially be guests. That is, unless they join, enter their age (to follow guidelines of COPA), and then either turn filtering on or off manually.

While this is a poll, we are taking feedback posted into consideration above just the polling data too.

 

[Okinawa]

It looks like the crowd has spoken. We will keep all words intact as written by the author, as we are all adults and have been subjected to such multiple times in our lifetimes until we see a drop in revenue that is signified by the use of foul language. At that time, we will make posts individually hidden unless someone signs up and logs in, wherein it will be visible and intact.

If someone consistently uses foul language and you don't want to see it, you can simply ignore the member and see none of their posts.