The one that determined the words in the filter is not a Native English Speaker. 
And has lived in many countries both English and non-English.
And has lived in many countries both English and non-English.
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We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
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Thanks for responding Mr C. I hear you re family friendly but it' s just a bit annoying when a word like wh*reson gets substituted for 'complain' in a story. Anyhow I have dealt with the problem by judicious use of asterisks
I just feel a bit nanny-d is all
I despise all censorship and feel personally attacked every time one of my posts gets edited. Editing my words because they conflict with literally the weakest of all social mores just shows your extreme lack of commitment to free discourse. It moves me to wonder what else you might be censoring.
That might not concern the management much, but what they might not realize is the amount of ill-will this generates. I'm certainly not buying anything more from people who feel a need to censor me, and I'm extremely likely to discourage others from doing so, as well. Where once I was bugging my friends to buy CKII, I'm reversing course. Get off my neck.
And "family friendliness" as the justification? Seriously, every time I play your game it endlessly pesters me to screw my daughters-in-law senseless but some words considered in isolation are too naughty to pass before your forum-users eyeballs? Give me a break.
That might not concern the management much, but what they might not realize is the amount of ill-will this generates. I'm certainly not buying anything more from people who feel a need to censor me, and I'm extremely likely to discourage others from doing so, as well. Where once I was bugging my friends to buy CKII, I'm reversing course. Get off my neck.
And "family friendliness" as the justification? Seriously, every time I play your game it endlessly pesters me to screw my daughters-in-law senseless but some words considered in isolation are too naughty to pass before your forum-users eyeballs? Give me a break.
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To be fair, our terms of service has always laid out that as hosts of this privately owned forum, we reserve the right to remove or alter posts that we deem to not contribute to a positive environment. This is no different then any other privately owned business.
If you went to a fancy restaurant and began cussing loudly or trolling other patrons, you would be removed and the establishment is well within its rights to do so. It is no different here. Nothing changes just because we've swapped a brick-and-mortar location for a digital one.
Yes, and if I went to a fancy restaurant and they put an airhorn on my table to bleep me every time it detected that I was saying a naughty word to my party I would not return. I'm not saying you can't do whatever you want with ~YOUR PRIVATE FORUM~ (woooo capitalism), I'm telling you how the things you're choosing to do with it impact my attitude toward you.
On the other hand, one could argue that by following the rules that were set in the first place, you won't be annoyed by the restaurant's airhorn or by the forum's tool...
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Indeed, and if user compliance with the rules is the ultimate aim of management, things will indeed sort themselves out over time. The only people around will be those who don't mind conforming to rules that are onerous, pointless, and ultimately inconsistent with the philosophy of many of Paradox's products. So if all Paradox cares about is that these words don't appear in their forum, they should absolutely stay the course. But if they take seriously that people are irritated by restrictions on their behavior that have no justification beyond that no justification is necessary for the God-Proprietors of the forum, and that this particular choice might be costing them money, maybe they should reconsider.
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See, this is a two way street, though it's rarely acknowledged. Allowing a rowdy and uninviting atmosphere also encourages people to leave or not even get into the games. I would suggest that it is actually more damaging than such minor restrictions as replacing curse words with *s (which lets be honest, is extremely common in polite society as a whole).
I have seen plenty of instances of people asking benign questions only to be cussed out by some self-declared expert and they not only never get an answer, but never again appear on the forum. Hell, only a few months ago someone posted asking if there were any other women on the forum only to immediately attract some troll telling them that women didn't belong in strategy gaming.
So I think that we have done exactly as you've suggested, we looked at what was best for us as a company (our image to the outside, our image to users, our image to investors) and the atmosphere here on the forums is a big part of that. What is and isn't allowed does effect that, you're 100% correct, but we have found that there are much better results with a positive atmosphere than one that leans toward what you're asking for.
And that isn't always the case. I'll note, that I am a soccer ultra in a group that is very well known for a rowdy and expletive-laden atmosphere. We've had great results building our fan base and our team. But it comes at an extreme cost. Several competing teams have sprung up in the area just to offer a more family-friendly environment to what we offer. We've driven away enough people to support whole extra teams. And the atmosphere that sells tickets to a soccer game and the atmosphere that allows us to build a functioning, long-term community here are extremely different though based on a desire to offer the community something unique: almost all sporting atmospheres in the US are bland and emotionless, the rowdiness offers an outlet not found elsewhere; whereas one can find a cesspool of cursing and trolling anywhere on the internet, providing the opposite is a major boon to the forum and the company.
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I'm not irritated... quite the contrary... when i see the talks on other game forums, i welcome the peace and absence of foul language here !
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Getting cussed out isn't the problem with getting cussed out, and everyone knows it. If someone is being disrespectful to me a a girl gamer, I would like to explicitly not thank you for cleaning up their rant so that they appear to have a cleaner mouth than they in fact do. Adding a veneer of respectable language to a sexist rant isn't helping.
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However respectable the language may be, sexist rant should be condemned as far as i'm concerned.
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That is true, which is why they are removed and the offenders dealt with in private.
Her point is that we shouldn't clean up a sexist rant that includes curse words and add an unwanted layer of respectability to it.
Counter point: the curse words are not removed, they are censored so the other users still see the other person is being extremely rude... then the post is generally removed all together.
This is also not my preferred solution. I would rather the rant be allowed to stand in its original state, clearly showing the poster for what he is for all time. But, as you say, if you want to appoint yourself the volunteer public relations officer for every jerk in your forum, that is your prerogative.
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What happens is very context-based and honestly we're probably pushing my NDA here. If I can leave a post up, I will try for the point you mention here. However, the vast majority sprint past any kind of social expectation into a realm of vile cruelty that honestly has no place even as a testament to how terrible a user can be.
I also don't play "public relations officer" to trolls, and I would ask you retract the accusation as it is baseless and wrong. 75% of the time when I deal with these people I spend the next few days receiving nasty, threatening, and outright delusional PMs from people who I assume then put on the mask of normalcy and charade as productive members of society M-F, 9-5. I don't defend them. I remove them. But I'd rather bare the brunt of it than have it inflicted on the users. I signed up for this. I can handle it. Not everyone else can or even should.
Also consider how google searches work. Leaving up those sorts of posts means our forum, our company then appears on google searches for similar sorts of things. That isn't exactly the sort of SEO our marketing group has in mind.
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Anyway, I think that is enough. Remember - family friendly forum. Be nice to each other. Don't accuse the moderators of defending or protecting trolls, it isn't true or nice.
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