Word Filter

[The Mark of Cain]

I have always wondered about the word filter that steam has. Why do they filter words out on dicussions for games that are rated M? Plus, if you quote someone you are able to see the word they used which got filted which doesn't make sense to me. Is there a certain page somewhere that talks about the word filter that steam has?

[Black Blade]

I do not think the word filter is only for kids
Honestly if we are talking as adults there is no need to use that language to start with

[Gus the Crocodile]

There's no information or options page for it, no. I'd love a checkbox to turn it off; I don't share the aversion to seeing particular strings of letters that some seem to have. That doesn't mean I think all language use is justified, and I'm well aware "swearing" is against the rules, but lots of things are against the rules that don't get automatically filtered out, and that's okay. I'm just asking to be able to look at the world as an adult - to see things as they actually are.

The best part is watching people who argue alongside me in "get crappy games off Steam rah rah rah" threads, people who quite sensibly argue that more choice is better and it's not Valve's place to tell people which games are bad, turn around and say that it is Valve's place to decide which words are bad, that top-down restriction is a good thing.

[Black Blade]

Gus the Crocodile님이 먼저 게시:

There's no information or options page for it, no. I'd love a checkbox to turn it off; I don't share the aversion to seeing particular strings of letters that some seem to have. That doesn't mean I think all language use is justified, and I'm well aware "swearing" is against the rules, but lots of things are against the rules that don't get automatically filtered out, and that's okay. I'm Just asking to be able to look at the world as an adult - to see things as they actually are.

The best part is watching people who argue alongside me in "get crappy games off Steam rah rah rah" threads, people who quite sensibly argue that more choice is better and it's not Valve's place to tell people which games are bad, turn around and say that it is Valve's place to decide which words are bad, that top-down restriction is a good thing.

Well said
but what if lets say there is a game that is proven to get users angry, and go mad, then go and hit people in the face, Dose a game like that need to come to Steam?
Do we need really to see words that many times are used to hurt, and are not just words to some?

[Gus the Crocodile]

Black Blade님이 먼저 게시:

Well said :D:
but what if lets say there is a game that is proven to get users angry, and go mad, then go and hit people in the face, Dose a game like that need to come to Steam?

Proven? So upon seeing this game, people lose control of their bodies? Sounds pretty unlikely given that we're talking about information, not methamphetamines or the like.

But no, Steam doesn't need such a game. Steam doesn't need any games. Need isn't part of the equation. Games aren't put on Steam because they need to be there.

And there's no "we". I'm not arguing on behalf of "us", I'm arguing about me. If other people don't want to see such words, let them leave the filter on.

[Black Blade]

Gus the Crocodile님이 먼저 게시:

Proven? So upon seeing this game, people lose control of their bodies? Sounds pretty unlikely given that we're talking about information, not methamphetamines or the like.

But no, Steam doesn't need such a game. Steam doesn't need any games. Need isn't part of the equation. Games aren't put on Steam because they need to be there.

And there's no "we". I'm not arguing on behalf of "us", I'm arguing about me. If other people don't want to see such words, let them leave the filter on.

I think we discussed these in the past no?
and ya i am using pretty poor words on that....

My main thing as i do believe i said also there, is that i do think that allowing one to see that, will get it to be used more, and with that get more of a insults going around then a "calm" (lack of a better word) discussion abut a matter

How ever i do think we got to an agreement of disagreeing last time right?

[The Mark of Cain]

Do you believe they should also filter the words when quoting someone then? Because if they aim to censor these words wouldn't it make sense to filter them that way as well? It's just a thought.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Black Blade님이 먼저 게시:

My main thing as i do believe i said also there, is that i do think that allowing one to see that, will get it to be used more, and with that get more of a insults going around then a "calm" (lack of a better word) discussion abut a matter

See, you're already narrowing things down to "insults", but insults aren't what we're talking about. Yes, the filtered words can be used to insult. So can plenty of non-filtered words. Black Blade, you're an idiot. See? (You're not an idiot, just a demonstration).

I completely agree that insults should not be tolerated on the forum. But that's what moderators are for. If I go on a rant and sling as many heart-filtered words as I can at you, that's not magically okay just because you can't see the words, right? It's still terrible behaviour, and should be treated as such. The filter is pretty much irrelevant to that.

[Black Blade]

Muddyjunior님이 먼저 게시:

Do you believe they should also filter the words when quoting someone then? Because if they aim to censor these words wouldn't it make sense to filter them that way as well? It's just a thought.

Well at least in my opinion, dose not really matter
The point is what every one sees, and how it ends, when people quote it, that is not the same as when you read it, mentally
So i do not think that it really matters if you can see it when the quote or not

[Black Blade]

Gus the Crocodile님이 먼저 게시:

See, you're already narrowing things down to "insults", but insults aren't what we're talking about. Yes, the filtered words can be used to insult. So can plenty of non-filtered words. Black Blade, you're an idiot. See? (You're not an idiot, just a demonstration).

I completely agree that insults should not be tolerated on the forum. But that's what moderators are for. If I go on a rant and sling as many heart-filtered words as I can at you, that's not magically okay just because you can't see the words, right? It's still terrible behaviour, and should be treated as such. The filter is pretty much irrelevant to that.

(First side note, i am an idiot, and will gladly always be one, as it means i yet have lots of space to learn new things )

True, but lets say how will one use these words, in a matter that will not be insulting? (as in the bigger range of things)
I may just really be looking at it in some what narrow vision..

[Gus the Crocodile]

Black Blade님이 먼저 게시:

(First side note, i am an idiot, and will gladly always be one, as it means i yet have lots of space to learn new things :D:)

A very healthy perspective, more people could use that humility :)

Black Blade님이 먼저 게시:

True, but lets say how will one use these words, in a matter that will not be insulting? (as in the bigger range of things)
I may just really be looking at it in some what narrow vision..

Well, for instance, see up there where I said "it's still terrible behaviour"? I had initially written "it's still ♥♥♥♥♥♥ behaviour". That's not an insult. It's just a word describing something as "strongly bad".

Then there's plenty of usages which are just intensifiers (see pop-science page "I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love science") or indicators of, say, incredulity ("what the F"). My girlfriend recommended me a video entitled "How to use the word '♥♥♥♥'", but that may be considered linking to offensive material, so I'll just take those couple of examples.

[The Mark of Cain]

One instance I can think of where it wouldn't be insulting is when referring to achievements. I play Payday 2 and some achievements actually use swear words for their titles. If you were asking on the discussions about that achievement it would blank the word. It's not an insult to people but simply a title of an achievement. An example would be if someone asked how to get the "Like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Sputnik!" achievement (even though it's very straight foward). It wouldn't insult anyone.

[hotdogPi]

Malicious links are also censored with hearts.