3 ms·

The word is penis and that is the (very correct) word used in the article headline. Roughly half of us have one so there is no need to be mamby pamby about it.

by bdfh42 14y ago

The word is penis and that is the (very correct) word used in the article headline. Roughly half of us have one so there is no need to be mamby pamby about it. Here in the UK we have members of parliament and they are all - OK maybe that is it...

ColinWright 14y ago
That word is auto-deleted by the HN software, even from the interior of strings of letters, so something else has to be used if you want to get the message across. But aside from that, this is not HN material. Flag it and move on to something "deeply interesting".
- bdfh42 14y ago
  Holy crap - do you mean that penis is a "rude" word in your part of the world - when did correct and accurate English become rude? The mind truly boggles. How about vagina? Or does the female population of (I assume the USA) not have one? The interesting bit here is the reputed censorship of standard words not the original article which had no relevance to HN.
  - ColinWright 14y ago
    > ... do you mean that penis is a "rude" word > in your part of the world ... Has it occurred to you that this is actually nothing to do with me, and that I'm merely informing you of something I happen to know from observation in the past? Has it occurred to you that I am not actually in the USA, nor a citizen of the USA? Or do you simply leap to these conclusions automatically? Added in edit: This is not the first time I've provided information gained over the years I've been on the site, only to have someone then accuse or blame me for something they think is wrong or misguided. So you are not alone. Perhaps I should put a disclaimer on everything I write, or possibly just not bother answering at all. What do you think? I'd value your thoughts since you have, in fact, been on HN longer than I have.
    - bdfh42 14y ago
      Sorry mate - as you did not seem outraged at such censorship (perhaps just grudgingly used to it) I sort of lumped you in with the sorts of people that thought it was OK. My sincere apologies - no deliberate offence was intended to you - all my ire being reserved for the sorts of people that think in that strangely bizarre and nasty way. Addendum: First bit of such silly nonsense I have become concious of on this site so perhaps I reacted a bit strongly. If there have been others they have passed me by.
- lutusp 14y ago
  Too bad -- anyone living in Toppenish, WA can't use his town name in an HN headline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppenish,_Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppenish,_Washington But I suppose it's for the common good.
  - ColinWright 14y ago
    > Too bad -- anyone living in Toppenish, WA > can't use his town name in an HN headline. Indeed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314729
    - lutusp 14y ago
      Oh, that's great -- just delete the offending word with no fanfare or warning. I'm tempted to submit "Toppepenisish" to see how well-written and/or recursive the regular expression is. Or, for that matter, this headline: "The word 'penpenisis' is forbidden in an HN headline." Which, if successful, would rank alongside "This sentence is false" in the panoply of mischievous philosophical experiments. On the other hand, that offensive word has more euphemistic substitutes than nearly any other English word except possibly "drunk". On that basis, one might avoid the word just to have an excuse to use one of its more esoteric stand-ins: http://namingschemes.com/Penis_Synonyms http://namingschemes.com/Penis_Synonyms "Yogurt gun"? Who comes up with these things and what were they smoking?

by bdfh42 14y ago

ColinWright 14y ago

That word is auto-deleted by the HN software, even from the interior of strings of letters, so something else has to be used if you want to get the message across. But aside from that, this is not HN material. Flag it and move on to something "deeply interesting".

bdfh42 14y ago
Holy crap - do you mean that penis is a "rude" word in your part of the world - when did correct and accurate English become rude? The mind truly boggles. How about vagina? Or does the female population of (I assume the USA) not have one? The interesting bit here is the reputed censorship of standard words not the original article which had no relevance to HN.
- ColinWright 14y ago
  > ... do you mean that penis is a "rude" word > in your part of the world ... Has it occurred to you that this is actually nothing to do with me, and that I'm merely informing you of something I happen to know from observation in the past? Has it occurred to you that I am not actually in the USA, nor a citizen of the USA? Or do you simply leap to these conclusions automatically? Added in edit: This is not the first time I've provided information gained over the years I've been on the site, only to have someone then accuse or blame me for something they think is wrong or misguided. So you are not alone. Perhaps I should put a disclaimer on everything I write, or possibly just not bother answering at all. What do you think? I'd value your thoughts since you have, in fact, been on HN longer than I have.
  - bdfh42 14y ago
    Sorry mate - as you did not seem outraged at such censorship (perhaps just grudgingly used to it) I sort of lumped you in with the sorts of people that thought it was OK. My sincere apologies - no deliberate offence was intended to you - all my ire being reserved for the sorts of people that think in that strangely bizarre and nasty way. Addendum: First bit of such silly nonsense I have become concious of on this site so perhaps I reacted a bit strongly. If there have been others they have passed me by.
lutusp 14y ago
Too bad -- anyone living in Toppenish, WA can't use his town name in an HN headline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppenish,_Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppenish,_Washington But I suppose it's for the common good.
- ColinWright 14y ago
  > Too bad -- anyone living in Toppenish, WA > can't use his town name in an HN headline. Indeed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314729
  - lutusp 14y ago
    Oh, that's great -- just delete the offending word with no fanfare or warning. I'm tempted to submit "Toppepenisish" to see how well-written and/or recursive the regular expression is. Or, for that matter, this headline: "The word 'penpenisis' is forbidden in an HN headline." Which, if successful, would rank alongside "This sentence is false" in the panoply of mischievous philosophical experiments. On the other hand, that offensive word has more euphemistic substitutes than nearly any other English word except possibly "drunk". On that basis, one might avoid the word just to have an excuse to use one of its more esoteric stand-ins: http://namingschemes.com/Penis_Synonyms http://namingschemes.com/Penis_Synonyms "Yogurt gun"? Who comes up with these things and what were they smoking?