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Haha, Jason - you know I didn't know who Justin Bieber was until a few days ago. My only reaction was "WTF?"

Bypassing a filter is child's play. Coincidently "Child's play" is also where you learn to curse.

Yeah, when I found out about him, I was like "Oh, another mainstream pop singer. Moving on..." And I hear so much about people bashing him. I don't really care for making fun of him or bashing him in the same way that I don't care to listen to his music. It just doesn't appeal to me.

Musically speaking, I do have a couple guilty pleasures that would maybe be a "disgrace" to mention on a classical piano forum! Lol...

EDIT Okay, I'll share one with you guys.

That word is not censored, though. At least, it wasn't when I demonstrated a day or two ago.

But besides that demonstration, I have no use for that word, or any other swear word.

I didn't know either...

And I heard of "Australian Idol" in its 7th year!! Just the year they stopped it I think.

I haven't ventured in here in a while, but found this thread via a search (after seeing a thread in either the Piano or Piano Tech forum on Transparency on PW), and seeing as it's still somewhat recent, I'll contribute a couple thoughts...

For me, personally, I'm ok with the careful and occasional use of words that may be considered "profanity", in some cases. I wouldn't use them willy nilly (not sure if that's gonna get censored here, and I hope you all will understand what I mean when using it (another forum I participate in DOES censor the "w" word), though. As far as I know, I don't think there's any word that I would consider to be ALWAYS offensive, for myself at least.
Of course, though, I will usually do my best to respect others that don't care for those words, although sometimes I can slip.

Also, some places I've seen censorship, it's been interesting, especially on the Zynga (facebook games) forums - words that I know have normal perfectly fine uses are censored there. Examples include a 3-letter word beginning with "g" that has meant "happy", a 5-letter word beginning with "p" that's another way to say "cat", a 4-letter word beginning with "d" that's a nickname for Richard, a 4-letter word beginning with "c" that's a male chicken (as well as some other birds, and is used in some translations of the Bible), and I'm sure there are others I can't think of at the moment.

Also, on a tech-leaning IRC chat I sometimes participate in, certain cuss words are replaced with a particular person's name. And, in a first-person shooter game I often play, I remember playing on one game server several years ago on which certain words (especially body parts) were automatically replaced in the in-game text chat with their so-called "proper" terms in capital letters. And, a year or two ago on another game server (same game), I heard someone play a song over the microphone that was probably from the 1950s or so, containing the 6-letter "n" word, and in no way did I ever find anything offensive about the way that word was used.

Also, one of those 7 dirty words is quoted in Isaiah 36:12 (as well as another place I can't remember at the moment) in the King James Bible. (BTW if something, or its subject matter or anything remotely similar, appears in the Bible, then due to the respect I have for that book (although I will say I often fail at actually doing what it teaches), it automatically makes those types of words non-offensive for me.)

Last but not least, one thing that does annoy me about such language is when people take formerly perfectly legitimate words, and change their meaning so now we have to be careful saying them anymore.


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Now for something that's (hopefully) on a gayer (the original meaning of the word) note ...

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What did the fish say when he swam into a wall?

Okay, I'll bite: What DID the fish say when it swam into a wall?

As for profanity, I had a brief but impassioned argument with my 15 year old daughter, who insisted that the word that begins with p and rhymes with "brick" is acceptable slang that she could use despite her tender years, and I told her that it most definitely was not. I won.

What's wrong with "prick"? Lots of people fit that category.. =)

To quote George Carlin re what's ok to say on TV: "You can prick your finger, but you can't finger your...."

You're funny.

There's another word that got twisted to have a "bad" meaning, bluekeys - prick (afaik poking someone/something with a sharp instrument enough to leave a mark). In my post above I mentioned that's something I really wish wouldn't happen. Words like gay (happy), pussy (a cat), Dick (nickname for Richard), cock (male chicken, also some other birds) also have different meanings that as far as I'm aware are perfectly acceptable in general all-ages conversation, shown in the parentheses after each word. Also the word piss appears twice in the King James Bible, hell and damn (or various forms of it) appear more times than I think I could count, and cock is in there too (one place being where Jesus told Peter the cock would not crow till Peter had denied Jesus); due to my respect for the Bible none of those words are offensive to me, especially the way they're used there. (I'm not even offended by passages in some of the prophets that use sexual imagery, or some graphic descriptions of battle scenes and other things, but for the sake of the youngsters here I'm not going to narrow down any further where they are or what they say at this time, unless requested.)

P.S. I hope due to the way the words are used, my post is not offensive. It is not intended to be - I was just trying to point out that those words have not always had bad uses. (IMO, if they always have been bad, they would not have been put in the Bible, even if said translation including one of the 7 dirty words was originally translated around 1611 AD.)

Here is a perspective you may not have considered.

When you are here, it is not dissimilar to being at someone's house. There are rules to which you must abide. If the owner does not approve of how you behave, you may be ejected and your "welcome" status will be revoked. The rules are designed for the benefit of the entire community. Not everyone will agree with them, but they must be followed to retain your welcome status.

Freedome of speech? Not exactly. You cannot say anything you want, claiming freedom of speech -- just the same as you can't yell "I have a bomb on an airplane." That's the purpose of the profanity filters. They are a gentle reminder that your are crossing the line that the forum administrator have drawn (i.e. the "rules").

You erroneously think a PM is to communicate privately amongst friends and while this is true most of the time, a PM can also be sent to a total stranger threatening to cut their throat. Of course that is an extreme example, but the rules that apply to the public area also apply to the private area as well. I believe this software design is well thought out and the fact that the filters apply to public and private areas is very intentional, for the reasons I mentioned above.

It's okay if you want to tell me to lighten up. Just wanted to share a perspective you may not yet have considered.

Here are the forum rules, for your reference.

That got me thinking... I understand laptop computers are allowed as carry-ons on aircraft, but... I wonder how well it would go over if several people that were (maybe NOT) sitting together (if there was a way they could wirelessly network - maybe WiFi? some airlines have that, I think) started playing Counter-Strike: Source together, using speakers instead of headphones, and communicating over in-game voice chat?

Do lighten up, will ya?