Striking the right balance between having a welcoming environment and salty language

In my opinion, for what it’s worth,“sticks and stones might break my bones, but words can never hurt me”.

If you see something, word, phrase or other that you don’t like or find offensive, stop reading it. Skip it, move on! If you find similar language repeatedly being used by the same person…wait for…wait for it…ignore that person!

We don’t live in a sanitized world, in every day life we are responsible for our own well being, treat adults like adults.

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“grown up talk” Hmmmm. You all honestly mix in “t1ts, fu6ing, motherfu6er, etc.” in your work-a-day vocabulary? Do you all see it on other internet forums you participate in?

One of my workspaces in the office is adjacent to the kitchen. I can hear the chatter when the ladies take breaks together. I have never heard things like “t1ts, fu6ing, motherfu6er, etc.” The watering holes I frequent have been characterized as biker bars. My pals do not use use language such as “t1ts, fu6ing, motherfu6er, etc.”…unless a beer get dropped, and heck, that rarely happens. I hear this language when my window is open at work, from the hookers, winos, and chronically unemployed down on the corner. “t1ts, fu6ing, motherfu6er, etc.” is not “grown up talk” it is the language of street bums.

Sam, if you decide “grown up” language shall be unrestricted, fine with me. I can mix “t1ts” into my posts just as good as the next lady…or gentleman. However you need to squash instantly and without prejudice, anyone, especially bully groups, who complain about the use of “grown up” language whether the term is perceived to be a gender slight, or lifestyle choice. Or maybe let FTC be the sanctuary of “grown up” talk, seems to be a wasteland there, anyway

editing the offending parts, sorry

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It depends on what kind of work environment we are talking about. I don’t know any restaurant kitchens where people don’t cuss. In fact, I frequent a few ethnic restaurants where the waiters/waitresses always cuss openly in foreign languages to each others. They probably don’t expect I understand them. I work in a professional environment, even there people do cuss in private small group settings, especially close door.

Anyway, this is actually different than what we were talking about. No one was actually cussing. No one (in this thread) were use these vocabulary to attack anyone.

Biscuit, I am a bit surprise your change of heart, because early on you got a lot of criticisms when you called another person a ska*k, and you stood firm on that subject. People were calling you to apologize. I actually stuck my head out to defended your intention.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Hooters

A post was merged into an existing topic: Hooters

OK folks- we got complaints about the use of the word T*ts. I am just going to go back to all posts that had these words, replaced it with the word Chest, and noted that I made the changes.

(Mod note: this post was the first post of the thread, but I messed up the time stamp so it ended up down here)

This thread will now reopen. Only posts related to constructive discussion of the handling of this issue please. Please no raising of voice.

I’ve read this thread top to bottom. Twice. And am still not entirely sure what the issue is. I have never seen a Hooters nor have more than a minimal idea what it is. Certainly I know that it’s a place where I don’t want to have dinner. Upthread, kattyeyes make sthe suggestion that, if we focus on the breasts of chickens, etc, then we shouildnt have any problems. Makes perfect sense to me.

I think we can be over-sensitive when we’re online (some unmoderated boards I know excluded) but if we just exercise our adult commonsense, we should be OK.

By way of examples, another place I have never seen but know I don’t want to have dinner there is Dick’s Last Resort. Are we to take offence at mention of a slang word for a penis? Or, am I take to take offence when Americans use my first name as slang for the toilet (depending on context, yes I might)?

John

Please don’t take offense if I ever say I have to use the “John”. (Lol)

I suggest that we should use the term “NotJohn” because NotJohn is not related to John after all.

I like a little salty language and I dislike being overly moderated. As far as I can tell, this is an older crowd that should be able to handle the odd slang term. Complaining about that one in particular is overreacting, IMO.

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If this were an Italian language website, banning the word “tits” would result in banning a discussion of at least a dozen – if not more – classic Italian dishes, some of the actually made with the teats of animals, or others that use the word descriptively to describe a pastry, the most notorious being a mound of meringue topped with a candied cherry called “nun’s tits”. These pastries are on publicly on display at child’s-eye level in pastry cases, tagged as such.

My own view is that any English-language international food website that disallows an expression like ripped to the tits is a less educational space for me. I regularly follow the comments on the Guardian UK website, and as an American it’s been a great expansion of my off-colour vocabulary. (Which by the way, when I was a American media worker, already had grown to tremendous proportions and got plenty of daily exercise, all day long, in every office meeting and editorial conference I attended – True of both men and women.)

But I also follow an international movie discussion forum, and the site uses some kind of automatic bleeper that instantly renders all of George Carlin’s 7 Dirty Words (was tits one of them?) to beep, and it does the same to racial/religious slurs. People will get around the automatic censor with inventions like “fooking”, and people who persistently post racial/religious slurs get complained about and booted, but what is good about the system – if you feel you must censor – is that it doesn’t inhibit people from writing what they really think on the fly. What other people will see is “Man, when she walked into that room, I dropped my entire beep box of popcorn” so you don’t lose the flavour of somebody’s style.

Don’t know if others saw the news report not long ago that talked about how most people writing on the internet, even privately, now feel obliged to pre-censor themselves and not use words like “bomb” or “terror” or even “god willing” because of the NSA. So creating any space where people feel like they can say what they think to each other across borders strikes me as an adult responsibility!

I don’t know if the Guardian considers its online website a family website for 13+. Does Slate? Is there a way to offer yourself up for V-chip inclusion or whatever it is parents do to computers to make sure their youngest are not traumatised by reading a word like tits while researching items of educational interest?

If I had a kid whom I discovered was spending their free time hanging out on a website like Hungry Onion, I’d be thrilled and relieved – even if I occasionally saw somebody post one or all seven of George Carlin’s Dirty Words (but I think no matter who or how many complain you cannot ban balls no matter how people use it, however they use it – but then again to me, balls are just balls and tits are just tits. Parts of mammals.

Only if someone suggests the servers at Dick’s tend to get bigger tips by “shoving their d*cks in people’s faces.” That seems in poor taste to say the least.

But, maybe we should talk about this place next! Their little ditty is pretty amusing:

And please don’t be offended, though I wish I understood how your name came to be used that way. My mom uses “you” all the time despite the fact I even lived with someone with your same name for years; she’s a funny sort. :wink:

I’ve yet to work up the courage to eat Spotted Dick. What is it, anyway?

Some will be as surprised as I to learn that the using “John” as a synonym of toilet originated in Britain

Well, Mr. Harters, you have your own homeland to thank. Sorry! :wink: If it makes you feel better, I never use “you” like that. HA HA.

Do we have any idea of how many people found the word use offensive? Or how many people complained?

I don’t think it should depend on the numbers. There are certain racially offensive terms – and you can put “gypsy” at the top of the list – that were this website to permit an extended discussion where racially derogatory words were freely allowed because the majority honestly can’t see anything wrong with it – I would certainly raise a stink and would certainly not be here posting ever again if the response was: 'just one hypersensitive crank"

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