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Too much profanity? Well butter my ass and call me fucking skittles! So you want to censor everyone who doesn't buy into your flowery child talk? Fuck that. Cu

• rtpg 13y ago
  profanity as a language tool is meant to accentuate things (like an exclamation mark). If you overuse it, it becomes useless. Swearing all the time is not equivalent to talking like an adult, despite what you might think.
  • phryk 13y ago
    I agree. The curse-density in that post is obviously a good deal above my average. :) People communicate in different ways (and with different "curse-densities") and that is completely fine. What isn't fine is trying to get everyone to conform to a certain way of communication that you personally think is agreeable. Diversity is to be cherished, not frowned upon. It makes for a more interesting world, and I am not willing to lose that just to make my environment have a few less sharp edges. I don't need nor am willing to be rolled up in bubble wrap for what somebody calls my "own safety", which then isn't even determined by myself.
    • justin66 13y ago
      > Diversity is to be cherished, not frowned upon. It makes for a more interesting world, and I am not willing to lose that just to make my environment have a few less sharp edges. If the effect of not censoring yourself in this regard is to work in a much less diverse environment, which side is going to give? Honest question.
      • phryk 13y ago
        If the effect of not censoring yourself in this regard is to work in a much less diverse environment, which side is going to give? Honest question. And a good one, too. The honest answer is: I don't know. I think this is highly contextual. At least I can't make a generalized decision for that. If the "less diversity" bit for instance means incorporating a 'No Nazis'-rule then the choice might be clear while in other cases it might be much more nuanced. As a rule of thumb I am against limiting someone's freedom until there is no other way around it. I would for instance only vote for a 'No Nazis'-rule if there would be a real problem with Nazis without that particular rule. If, however, we are still talking about the case of censoring out profanity, you know my opinion. The people who are filtered out (or constitute the "less diversity") are the sort of people who get offended by me making use of a basic freedom (the one of speech). I am not interested in meeting people like that - frankly I hope they stay as far away from me as fucking possible. This is similar to the reason of why I am against anti-discrimination rules at hacker cons; They are liable to be abused at some point while not providing anything of worth. The sort of abuse they are supposed to prevent are reason enough to throw someone out even without those rules. Any major abuse is reason enough to get thrown out of a hacker event, or really any event. The argument I have heard a few times for anti-discrimination rules is that girls get hit on all the time. I was kind of flabbergasted when I first heard this. I mean I can understand that it gets on ones nerves, but kicking someone out of an event because they hit on somebody really is not the right thing to do. If you don't want to get hit on there's a plethora of ways to communicate that in a non-verbal fashion, like wearing a wedding ring or - less subtle - wearing a shirt that says "I don't want to get hit on" or something, you get the idea… I can use profanity in a peaceful manner to set emphasis and if someone feels attacked, denounced or otherwise mistreated they can just talk to me. Seriously, I don't bite and if I see your point I will act accordingly. Even if you are offended by someones actions that doesn't mean that they are unyielding dogmatic assholes - Just give them the benefit of the doubt and try to reason with them. And if it works you might've just broadened your personal horizon, maybe even made a new friend. You'd think a community consisting of some of the most intelligent people on this planet would manage to have a proper communication culture, but in many aspects we are clearly lacking. I hope for this to change and of course discussions like this are a great first step towards doing so.
  • slantyyz 13y ago
    >> profanity as a language tool is meant to accentuate things (like an exclamation mark). If you overuse it, it becomes useless. I generally associate overuse of profanity with laziness in word selection, but that's just me. I agree with you on overuse. The only times where profanity has any impact on me is when someone who doesn't normally use profanity uses it for emphasis.
• jwilliams 13y ago
  The OP was just commenting that they didn't find abuse and profanity productive. They didn't mention censoring anyone. They said it didn't work for them. Do you have one single way of expressing yourself? Do you use profanity 100% of the time? Do you automatically reject all feedback on how you express yourself? ... On how you write code? ... Or how you interact with your colleagues? Because, from your comment, that's how you come across. All feedback can be made to be useful, even if you end up filtering it out early.
  • phryk 13y ago
    They didn't mention censoring anyone. True that, I will try to get a bit less triggerable about this. Do you have one single way of expressing yourself? Do you use profanity 100% of the time? Do you automatically reject all feedback on how you express yourself? ... On how you write code? ... Or how you interact with your colleagues? No, of course not. I have however come into contact with quite a few people who tried to censor me before, that might be the reason why I'm so easily "triggerable" with this.
  • Monotoko 13y ago
    My coding comments often include the words "Fuck", "Shit" and "Cunt" when things are not going my way.
    • phryk 13y ago
      So all your comments are lacking is a bag of dicks. :3
• doctorfoo 13y ago
  Hacker News: Where IQ and intelligence trumps being pleasant. So many tech types are assholes.
  • phryk 13y ago
    If you meet me in real-life I'm pretty relaxed. I've even been called a pleasant person, too! I'm just getting a bit jittery whenever someone tries to regulate free speech. If you think I'm an asshole you are hereby invited to meet me at the OHM in a few weeks and yell at me. :)
  • sergiosgc 13y ago
    Pleasant ≠ profanity free. I identify fully with Linus' stance of profanity bursts followed by no-grudges held. A common professional profanity free, revenge backstabbing, work environment is much much more unpleasant.
    • doctorfoo 13y ago
      I agree with your first statement totally, the difference is I would rate Linus' attitude, separate from his language, as unpleasant and unnecessarily aggressive. I don't like aggression in the workplace (or anywhere.) And I think that links into a comment above regarding women; in general women are less aggressive and so feel less at home in this industry. In general, in my opinion, etc, etc.
      • sergiosgc 13y ago
        I don't buy into the view that women are less aggressive. IMO, they display a different kind of aggressiveness, somewhat less frontal but just as damaging. This may be a guy thing, and a clash in behaviour of the sexes. Guys are more prone to bursts of aggressiveness, gals more adept of moderate long term aggressive stances. Which one is more difficult to handle is largely a matter of opinion. Quick bursts are automatically solved immediately, leaving bruised egos, long term allows more time to manage the underlying reason. Just because Linus' stance is flashy does not make it wrong. Unless you posit that aggression is never warranted. Then, we'll have to disagree. Aggression is a normal behaviour, artificial suppression leads to non healthy alternatives; it's better to lay problems out in the open and fix them than to sweep them under the politically correct rug.
• gregd 13y ago
  We have a rule in my house. The only bad words are words used to hurt other people. Fuck and shit aren't included in that group...
  • dgesang 13y ago
    What about "Fuck you, you piece of shit!" ;)