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There is no sociologically valid use case for a profanity detection library. This is a misuse of technology. Get over your shit.
by rebornshellfish 8y ago
There is no sociologically valid use case for a profanity detection library. This is a misuse of technology. Get over your shit.
- ashleyn 8y agoNot even making services age-appropriate?
- rebornshellfish 8y agoFirstly, it won't work because designing a profanity filter can only ever be an eternal game of cat and mouse - there are always going to be new words or ways of r3wr1t1ng the same words. This doesn't take into account the problem of multiple languages. Secondly, age-appropriate is a far more complex challenge than simply filtering out "bad" words. Anything can be reworded. Families differ in which words they consider acceptable at each age. If you really want to make an online service safe for young children, you probably shouldn't be matching them with unapproved strangers to talk to in any form.
- beobab 8y agoAre you familiar with the maxim that people behave better if they believe they are being observed? Would you agree that people would be less likely to “go off on one” if a draft message displayed a “this message could be construed as offensive” warning before they sent it?
- jsjohnst 8y agoBut what defines “offensive”? If you used a “profane” word, I’d likely not even notice. But if you said something negative about me or my family, yes, that’d likely be offensive. Even that isn’t fool proof, a friend saying something negative about me might not be offensive (especially if a truthful statement), but a stranger it would likely always be. There’s so much nuance here that I feel it’s a losing battle.
- ken 8y agoIs there a "sociologically valid use case" for other software you've seen announced on HN?