Guild Wars 2

For lots of reasons, I rarely visit the forum. But I do know that Anet, for their own reasons, ensure that anything considered profane gets, errrr, kittened. As we all do (know, I mean, not kittened!).

I’m not fussed about that. I think it’s actually a rather nice way of sanitising things, even if I’m not entirely onside of the notion that this, or any, forum should be sanitised. I’m also not entirely certain as to what gets kittened. The more… errr… crude, unsubtle, choose what word you will, obviously do.

But what about “kitten ” or “bloody”? I guess I’ll find out whether they get censored when I hit “post”. But my actual question is… (Yes, there was a point to this! ) How many of you actually type “kitten”?

I’m happy to confess that I do. I know what the Anet forum will do, so I find that, on the odd & infrequent occasions I post, if I feel the need to use one of THOSE words for emphasis (which is all it can ever be on the net), I do actually type “kitten” instead.

How many of you do / do not do the same?

I recently replied back to someone whose post to me was full of the filtered “kitten”. They were saying something like I was arguing like kittens or without a lot of kittens. I can’t remember their exact phrasing. I responded back by manually typing kitten numerous times in a lengthy post and each mention of kitten linked to a photo of a kitten.

Outside of that instance, I normally don’t type it out. Then again, I don’t really type anything that trigger the filter except for when it’s unintended. You’d be surprised about some of the things that trigger it.

I just type what I want to say. If they change it, they change it. But I don’t put extra thought into changing things to the word “kitten”.
Sometimes profanity filters amuse me, and I’ll joke with husband about it. But that’s about the extent of it.

Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. Just depends on my mood when I’m typing I guess.

I think it’s more interesting to use Nachos. Everyone loves nachos.

I rarely type “kitten” and the few times it appear in my posts it is because of unintended censorship, like in “ar” + “senal” that becomes kitten nal …

I type what I want to say. I think I was censored once for something inocuous, so I edited to make it clearer without someone getting the impression I was trying to swear.

This thread about why they use ‘kitten’ here may entertain you: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/arenanet-tracker/topic/236930-why-kitten-as-the-bleeper/

I prefer “Cabbage!” tbh….

What the Cabbage!

No, and I feel kinda bad that fluffy kittens are getting a bad reputation. Actual kittens…

Endless Soul.5178:

I think it’s more interesting to use Nachos. Everyone loves nachos.

Doggie.3184:

No, and I feel kinda bad that fluffy kittens are getting a bad reputation. Actual kittens…

Charr kittens are nasty tho……

I guess I’ve been on the forum for too long. I type Kitten more than no ; )

I find that funy

I never type the word as I usually talk in a way that doesn’t get censored, unless it’s some weird letter/number combination on accident that gets replaced because it could look like something inappropriate when you rotate the screen by 84 degrees and squint at it.

On the other hand, I sometimes have fun reading other responses and trying to guess for each “kitten” what the original word might have been or if it’s been typed out on purpose

CETheLucid.3964:

Endless Soul.5178:

I think it’s more interesting to use Nachos. Everyone loves nachos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg5QBrwKF94

Well is always was a little high strung. Nachos would help.

I don’t have a bad case of sewagemouth, so I don’t run run into that very often, and most times I do its just a word combo that triggers it (like the word “it” preceded by anything ending in “t”)

BTW I just remembered that in the GWguru forums (the “official” gw1 forums) the censor was “RED ENGINE GO” for every letter, so the “F bomb” would be “RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO”

Paulytnz.7619:

Doggie.3184:

No, and I feel kinda bad that fluffy kittens are getting a bad reputation. Actual kittens…

Charr kittens are nasty tho……

This isn’t the place for racism.

Meh, you can tell what someone’s saying anyway censorship like this is totally pointless. If we read kitten in certain contexts then our mind for example goes to a word that rhymes with luck but starts with f.

Belzebu – yes, I ran into that in the original Beta & got infracted for it. Anet got a very irate email back. Some utter… kitten on their staff tried to tell me that “snicker” was the word I meant. I forcibly replied that he was bloody ignorant.

Oh, by the way, dam, I assume, passes but don’t put an n on the end of it. That’s what got kittened in my OP. How over sensitive is that?

Anyway, as a result of that infraction, I’ve rarely visited the forum since, let alone posted. Heavy-handed moderation is one thing. Heavy-handed & ignorant moderation I can certainly live without. For those of you still puzzled, the English version of snicker starts with s but the rest of the word is the n-word. It contains the n-word, but has nothing to do with it, from the etymology point of view. I got infracted because, in disbelief, I s p a c e d the word in a reposted version. So the Mod got very short shrift for telling me it wasn’t a real word. Naturally, I never heard anything back….

Just for dam? Seriously? That’s not even a real swear it’s only a notch above complete non-swears like crap or heck.

Kitten is the best word arenanet or any company ever came up with to substitute swearwords. It kinda suits all kittening words and people still knows what is behind the kittening.

No, no, I didn’t get infracted for dam + N. I merely point out that that got kittened. It was S + the n-word that I was done for… And reacted furiously (but politely) to. It was the tone as much as the ignorance that got up my nose…

I do tend to self-censor on the forums with “kitten.” It makes people think I’m more upset than I am.

Also, kittens are better than cupcakes!

Now, let it be said, just because there are filters, that’s no excuse for being a kittenstick to other people.

I never type the synonym for baby cat on purpose as a swear because I know people will think I typed something worse. Occasionally I get felined for typing innocent phrases that contain a bad word as a subset, eg you just cannot say a price is a tad cheaper if you want bit rather than tad. When I notice I edit them for clarity.

Raedwulf, I feel your pain. While we should remain very careful about actual use of the n word — I know that on those occasions when I had to say it in court as part of cross examination I just about choked on it (if the reason your client got into a fist fight was thanks to that word being used insultingly to him, you sort of have to mention it in your arguments and questioning) — we should remain equally careful not to fly off the handle at other words that incorporate the string of letters or, worse, just sort of sound like it. Context is everything.

On the other hand I don’t see how they can make an effective filter that doesn’t make contextual errors. Though as they discover them, as in the word for a facility holding a lot of weapons, or for weighing value of an argument or size of a problem, or — as happened to me early in the game, a word that contains a bad word in another language, to wit, “reputation” — surely they can add exceptions to the filter?

Because the number of baby cats in these forums means some of them are going to end up in shelters. Remember to spay or neuter your posts!

So, what kinds of stuff do others get “kittened” for?

Isn’t & it
is one of the worst offenders. Sarcasm doesn’t pay, does it? :P

There are days I type kitten.

Some posts, however, deserve the full on wrath of a kitten.

Raedwulf.3712:

No, no, I didn’t get infracted for dam + N. I merely point out that that got kittened. It was S + the n-word that I was done for… And reacted furiously (but politely) to. It was the tone as much as the ignorance that got up my nose…

People are verrrry sensitive about that word. I read about a professor who was fired for using the old English word that means miserly, that is a word that sounds similar. The old English word is not even remotely related to the N word, but he was fired anyway.

Paulytnz.7619:

Charr kittens are nasty tho……

Little Sally Throatslasher just wanted to play laser pointer with you and you just had to make her cry.

The Chinese eat kitten.

(Just a test)

Hmmm. Their filter is offensive!

:)

Who cares!?!?

Ah. You’d mean “kittenrdly”, fleshy. I think that’ll pass the filters. And if any mod wants to take issue, I promise you another irate PM about your ignorance of the English language. It’s a perfectly good word.

Donari – for some unknown reason, my browser won’t let me do likes, otherwise I would. I promise to say “baby cats” in future. Except, like baby anythings, I won’t remember…

Aha! Nope, fleshy, your word doesn’t pass. What a silly filter it is! {I think all of those words will pass!}

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults. Makes much more sense to make it an option that’s on by default and let us turn it off if we want, but that’s just my opinion. I guess a lot of the perceived anger level has to do with your experiences in real life. I’ve been known to throw some foul language around, but that’s pretty common in the communities I’m part of in real life. They don’t tend to hold much malice for me, just emphasis. But I hang around with a bunch of motorcycle obsessed war vets and weirdos all day. It’s going to be different for someone like a white collar Mormon suburbanite who grew up thinking heck and darn were “serious business”.

I am going to take the high road and just type meow instead of kittens.

Most of the time I think I can make my point without resorting to swear words. But there have been times I’ve deliberately typed kitten for the effect, and other times I’ve said things I didn’t realise would be censored.

I don’t see much point in using actual swear words when I know they’ll be censored.

imsoenthused.1634:

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults.

It’s not just for adults though. The game is rated 12 in Europe and I assume the rating is similar in other places.

imsoenthused.1634:

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults.

Well a lot of these adults don’t act like it when they’re on the Internet.

Plenty of adults like to converse in a civilized and decent manner without excessive intrusions of crude words used to express ire or derision. I daresay that this preference is one of the marks of having earned the label of adult in the first place, so long as they don’t get mean spirited about others who prefer freer language.

I’m not upset by foul language. I use it myself, for appropriate emphasis, in appropriate settings. But as many internet posters are a bit looser than myself in their idea of appropriateness for use, I’m just as glad ANet has put in an amusing filter.

Doggie.3184:

Paulytnz.7619:

Doggie.3184:

No, and I feel kinda bad that fluffy kittens are getting a bad reputation. Actual kittens…

Charr kittens are nasty tho……

This isn’t the place for racism.

I think you just dislike cats and are tying to cover it up, your name might explain why you dislike cats. :P

I don’t think I’ve ever used profanity on the forums for it to get filtered away. Any “kittens” of mine you see would be intentionally written by me, or one of those strange accidental ones where I’ve been unlucky with a sequence of letters.

I think kitten is a great choice for a filter word. There’s nothing better than for somebody’s vulgarity and heat to be converted into something so soft and adorable. I guess other words such as “bubbles” or “tickle” would’ve had a similar effect.

I have to be honest though. I am very biased towards kittens. I volunteer at a local animal shelter… so… here’s an obligatory kitten:

I type “kitten [sic]” usually, when I deliberately type use a substitute. (Most of the time my posts are hit by the filter is due to its aggressiveness — it will filter legit words, because the exception rules aren’t thorough enough.)

Danikat.8537:

Most of the time I think I can make my point without resorting to swear words. But there have been times I’ve deliberately typed kitten for the effect, and other times I’ve said things I didn’t realise would be censored.

I don’t see much point in using actual swear words when I know they’ll be censored.

imsoenthused.1634:

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults.

It’s not just for adults though. The game is rated 12 in Europe and I assume the rating is similar in other places.

Even when something’s for children censoring serves no purpose. The censorship is more about not offending the parents than the children.

Agemnon.4608:

Danikat.8537:

Most of the time I think I can make my point without resorting to swear words. But there have been times I’ve deliberately typed kitten for the effect, and other times I’ve said things I didn’t realise would be censored.

I don’t see much point in using actual swear words when I know they’ll be censored.

imsoenthused.1634:

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults.

It’s not just for adults though. The game is rated 12 in Europe and I assume the rating is similar in other places.

Even when something’s for children censoring serves no purpose. The censorship is more about not offending the parents than the children.

I don’t see how allowing swearing would be helpful overall when it comes to debating, giving advice and writing constructive feedback.

Allowing profanity would likely distract from the point.

Imo, profanity has very little use, other than offending others and trying to bring emphasis to a particular point. The emphasis is rather lost when everybody begins to do it though, and there are far better ways of creating emphasis than sailor-mouthing the whole thing.

Better be careful, Gaile. One thing that amused me in Larry Niven’s Known Space universe was in the Gil the Arm tales. Niven posited that over time language changes so that things used as euphemisms for bad words become bad words themselves. So someone cussing out Gil might say “You bleeping blankity blank, I’m going to bleep your blank until it’s redacted all to censored blanks!”

Only of course, ANet is pushing “kitten” into the euphemism category. It’s going to be a bad word all by itself, one day, you’ll see.

I’m actually trying to incorporate the word kitten into my real life vocabulary over the upcoming weeks as I have my parents visiting from overseas, and let me tell you, it doesnt matter how old you are – parents hate swear words! So I shall be kittening left right and centre in real life!

Crimson Clouds.4853:

Agemnon.4608:

Danikat.8537:

Most of the time I think I can make my point without resorting to swear words. But there have been times I’ve deliberately typed kitten for the effect, and other times I’ve said things I didn’t realise would be censored.

I don’t see much point in using actual swear words when I know they’ll be censored.

imsoenthused.1634:

I’ve never understood the point in censoring a forum for adults.

It’s not just for adults though. The game is rated 12 in Europe and I assume the rating is similar in other places.

Even when something’s for children censoring serves no purpose. The censorship is more about not offending the parents than the children.

I don’t see how allowing swearing would be helpful overall when it comes to debating, giving advice and writing constructive feedback.

Allowing profanity would likely distract from the point.

Imo, profanity has very little use, other than offending others and trying to bring emphasis to a particular point. The emphasis is rather lost when everybody begins to do it though, and there are far better ways of creating emphasis than sailor-mouthing the whole thing.

Or it could emphasize certain points and not to directly insult someone (no need to swear for that.) Words evolve and develop for a reason. You are merely arguing from an extreme. Lots of words of a certain kind or communication style can distract from the main point. For example, when “she” is incorrectly used in a general sense (rather than he or they) you’re focused on the garish grammar instead of what the author is actually trying to say.

Forums are primarily casual conversation anyway, leave the boring dry styles for the “professionals”.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m tickled that, over time, many members of our community have adopted “kitten” as a cover-all word, instead of posting The Words That Should Never Be Written™.

The funny thing is when you say it in public: “I’m pretty kittened off about that!” and your friends give you the strangest looks.

I respectfully disagree on, “The words that should never be written” because sometimes I feel like writing them in some situations. Not always, sometimes.

It’s similar to how Jagex managed their filter in their game runescape and on their forums for a while, offensive and crude words that were filtered by the system were replaced with Cabbage.

Been there and used it in game and IRL and quickly acted as if nothing happened.

Basically for me cursing has 2 uses, either I’m letting off steam or I’m trying to provoke an emotional response out of the audience. So for me when I type here if I’m kittened off I usually just use the curse word, it makes me feel better. If I’m just trying to emphasize a point I use kitten, or KITTEN which if it’s capitalized you know they typed it in I’m not a fan of cussing, I feel like my generation has been far too free with it. It detracts from your persona as far as I’m concerned. It’s one thing to be hanging with the guys and cussing up a storm but it’s another to be in a more professional or formal setting and continuing that same language choice.

I always admired one of my old coaches for his control in being able to turn it on and off, unfortunately I don’t have the same ability. If I allow myself to be free with my friends it’ll carry over to situations where I would rather not have let one slip. This man though… he used exponential cussing “kitten to the kitten kitten kitten” but then never let one slip when parents, faculty or children were around.