Fair Go For Robbo.

OK, I like a bit of fun as much as the next bloke, and I'm sure that I've broken the rules on more than one occasion. But in the interest of a fair go for a decent bloke I'm going to, a bit further down the page, suggest some reforms, not as rules but as self controll.
We have a unique and wonderful forum here, with moderators that bend over backward not to stifle a robust and friendly atmosphere. The prime hard worker that should be obvious to all is , who works hard all day and then has to sort through all our verbal garbage and try and give it some sort of reasonable flavour, instead of being able to enjoy the forum as we do.

So in the interest of the title of this thread "Fair Go For " i would like to suggest the following.

Stop the generalised "Seppo Bashing", I think you will agree that it's been done to death several times.. If a specific idiot posts the usual stupidity then he becomes fair game and get stuck into him not his whole race.

Stop baiting with the usual vatiations on swear words. If you must swear, and at times certain words do give that explicit point to a description, then see my suggestions below.

The following suggestions are not meant to encourage an excuse to swear, they are meant only to get the message across in a way that is as inoffensive as possible if it becomes necessary to use a word that may be offensive to younger minds or people in general.

If you print out the following for reference, then I feel sure it will not take you long to become familiar with them. The one character will substitute for all forms of the word, the context will determine whether it ends in ...ed, or ....ing, or ....er, etc. etc.

SWEARWORD SUBSTITUTIONS - STANDARD FORUM FORMAT

= __ f... _________ eg. =wit or get=
- __ prick ________ eg. you - of a thing
w- __ wanker ______ eg. nothing but a w-
& __ ar.. _________ eg. go and sit on your & for a while
@ __ a...hole _____ eg. you are an @
* __ s..t _________ eg. you're full of *
B*__ bulls..t _______ eg. thats B*
c*__ crap _________ eg. that's a piece of c*
% __ balls _________ eg no % at all
# __ bastard ______ eg. you #

I had to put the lines in because the - of a system kept pinching my spaces. What a #. :D

I'm sure there are many more that I haven't thought of and if approves this system then run your suggestions by him, possably by PM, and they can be added to the list.

Remember, this is not intended to encourage or condone the use of swearing and I would expect the axe to be applied where necessary.

I was tempted say get =ed but I decided not to. :p :D

Seriously though Termite, I don't think it will fly.

Sure the habitues might play by the rules but how much time are we going to spend explaining it to newcomers?

I suppose we could have it on a page that we point the person to when the question arises but really I can't see it working in the long run.

I agree with the thrust of your post though. However maybe the solution is just for us to self police a little bit more.

My .05 cents.

:eek:

I don't know what that would do to me at work, where I regularly type those characters.

Every time I assign a value, it's going to be f...ed

Every subtraction is a pr.ck

@ is going to change the way I think of email addresses and remote databases!

# Well, lots of programmers regard comments as b*stards ;)

On a semi-serious note, would this add another 'layer' for newbies to be aware of, then learn, before participating freely here?

Why not get the BB software to format words on a filter-list as white-text-on-white-background, so you aren't inadvertenly offended by them, but can choose to see them by dragging over, or cut-n-pasting?

Cheers,
Andrew
P.S. Obviously, a) your arm isn't better yet, and b) you haven't got a lathe;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by craigb

I was tempted say get =ed but I decided not to. :p :D

Seriously though Termite, I don't think it will fly.

Sure the habitues might play by the rules but how much time are we going to spend explaining it to newcomers?

I suppose we could have it on a page that we point the person to when the question arises but really I can't see it working in the long run.

I agree with the thrust of your post though. However maybe the solution is just for us to self police a little bit more.

My .05 cents.

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You don't put the ...ed on the end, the context of the sentence does that for you, and the ed makes it too easy for the uninitiated to read it and so spoils the whole excercise.

You may well be right is saying it won't work, but at least it might make a few stop and have a think. What we have been given here is too valuable to lose by our own stupid actions. After some serious thought that is what I think.

I should have said that I also support what you're trying to do, preserving this forum.

Does really have to read every post, and manually edit the nasty words?

If so, I'd suggest asking for a new feature from the software supplier, or until then, maybe Termite can volunteer to share the load?

I'm not being facetious - an environment like this thrives because enough people care enough to do enough to make it work. Are there enough folk shouldering the adminstrative burden? Do they need apprentices?

Cheers,
Andrew

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arose62

:eek:

I don't know what that would do to me at work, where I regularly type those characters.

Every time I assign a value, it's going to be f...ed

Every subtraction is a pr.ck

@ is going to change the way I think of email addresses and remote databases!

# Well, lots of programmers regard comments as b*stards ;)

On a semi-serious note, would this add another 'layer' for newbies to be aware of, then learn, before participating freely here?

Why not get the BB software to format words on a filter-list as white-text-on-white-background, so you aren't inadvertenly offended by them, but can choose to see them by dragging over, or cut-n-pasting?

Cheers,
Andrew
P.S. Obviously, a) your arm isn't better yet, and b) you haven't got a lathe;)

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Yes i did have a bit of a laugh at the interpretation that could be put on some otherwise innofensive correspondence. :D

And regarding your last comment, correct on both counts. :(

Guys Guys Guys, we don't need abreviations ! Just cut it out completely. It serves no purpose to swear and is even more stupid in it's abreviated forms which don't really hide the meaning.

. If you can't get a point across without it, then you have a problem.

Save the time, lets get back to woodwork shall we ? Huh ?

There's still room to have some fun along the way.

You are right there Brother Termite - does a very good job.

He is not a prude by any means and enjoys telling and listening to good jokes along with the best of us.

The hat he wears is a difficult one as a moderator.

We all jump on our bandwagon from time to time and perhaps write things that are a bit over the top as if we were saying it down the pub in front of a handful of mates.

On the Bulletin Board, our words are for all to see and stay there for a long time so Termite's comments are OK.

Termite,

In principle; fine idea, but with the same or even less creativity, surely another means of expressing oneself could be found which doesn't require any secret code?

I'm thinking about expressions like " well I'll be darned" if necessary.

I'm with you all the way in terms of "Moderator-in-particular- Baiting".

A call to in jest was once a humourous interlude.

ONCE.

I just don't get the need to constantly push the well-defined envelope.

I'm no angel, and have given the mods a bit of work from time to time, no doubt I will in the future, but generally I do try not to test them for the sake of it.

If testing moderators is your sport, why not rack off to a Seppo forum, and kill two birds with one stone??

Cheers,

P

Fine idea, Termite, but as I never swear it's of little use to me ;)

At the risk of getting dumped on, I'd like to re-iterate what I've said before.

In this regard, we are out of step with the majority of contemporary Australia. These words are commonplace, and don't even cause a raised eyebrow from anyone under 40.

Like it or not standards have changed.

By all means delete the brain dead, gratuitous outpourings of obscenity from the ill educated and in-articulate, but deleting common words, or worse still having to put *** or whatever - come on! (thanks Leyton)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bodgy

These words are commonplace, and don't even cause a raised eyebrow from anyone under 40. )

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and who said that was a move forward?

I hear mothjers screaming abuse in the street at 2 year olds, using the most foul language you could imagine. I shudder to think what types they will bring into society as adults. Commonplace doesn't make it right or acceptable. I'm no prude but there is a time and place for everything. If this forum went that way, just like many others have done (try the bigpond newsgroups for instance) then I'd be off. I'm sure I'd have a few followers as well.

That would leave the inane, purile and abusive. It would close down at that point because Neil and would be wasting their time and money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by From the SMH letters page

Anti-terrorist bill be damned. We've still got freedom of speech. So, I'm going to … them at the … with a big … , and they will all … in a … of smoke. What, me scared? You bet.

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Thought this was appropriate. ;)

We have to keep in mind that, unlike Australia, these forums are not a democracy. They are run by a beneficial dictatorship and I'm quite happy with that.

I often wonder if a lot of the members are aware of just how good they've got it with this forum, run by a good bloke and moderated by a very tolerant bloke, with very very discreet ads.
If you would like to see a forum, run on the same base format as this one, then try http://www.overclockers.com.au/ . this is a computer forum funded totally by advertisers and I'll bet it takes you at least 5 minutes to even find the forum, and if it is ignorant idiots that you are looking for then you'll find plenty there. They don't do much moderating so as not to upset the advertisers.

Basically has a huge workload being our school marm after a busy day earning his living

He is entitled to have fun on this forum too.

If he cracks it coz it is too much work cleaning up after twits who won't abide the rules, what will happen to the forum?

Maybe the forum could close if the moderators job gets too hard