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Adult Language in forum

how to stay clean

         

TheFlipguy

1:55 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi All,

As we all know, Adsense TOS explicitly states that any kind of adult content on the pages is not allowed. As part of new features on my website, i'm thinking about adding a forum for my users. But I'm worried that some of the users may use language/words in their posts that may be considered inappropriate/adult. I'm not one for moderation (at least not pre-approvals of all messages) so I feel this can potentially be a problem with reference to adsense.

One solution I feel is to have a blacklist of words that are not allowed and then replace these with "****" when they appear on the website. What do you guys think? What will be the effect, if any, on search engines that may not consider "****" as good content.

I'm also thinking of not using this filtering if a user is logged in. This is because all my members are required to be adults while signing up. Potentially this means that the Mediabot/Search Engine bots will never see the adult/inappropriate words. But would Google consider this as cloaking? I really do not want to do anything that falls even within the gray area. Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.

Flip
/incidentally, can someone sticky me a link/pointer of where I can get a comprehensive list of such words?

Quadrille

2:15 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You can easily filter whatever words you wish; this is not cloaking, as the words are replaced, permanently on the page, and SEs see the same as visitors.

None of this should affect your listings; unless your visitors have tourettes, **** is likely to be a small part of your content. Isn't it?

But for that reason - and several others - you may be wise to consider preventing guests from posting; let 'em read, but only post after registration.

You'd also be wise to keep the filter on at all times; if they don't post cusses, it won't hurt your members. If they do, it won't hurt them to be censored.

jema

7:36 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I run lots of forums that can get afflicted by the potty mouthed.
Don't think of google as out to get you. If your operation tries to run clean I don't think they give a monkeys about exceptions. They are looking at intent.

I Will Make It

7:45 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Instead of replacing your users bad words with "****", which may cause the search engines to dislike your site. (Which IMHO don't believe they'll do)

Why not replace the bad words, or adult language with <font color="another color than the real text">-this word was censored-</font> or anything like that?

This will make out 4 words, instead of 1, hence the keyword-density for this words won't be counting as much as one word would do..

GenerationTalk

9:38 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The trouble is in phpBB you can sensor a word, but not remove a link its attached to - so strict rules and monitoring is required...

UserFriendly

11:48 pm on Jun 30, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Wait, are you talking about bad language (f***, s***, c***, m*****f*****, etc) or adult-themed language (discussions of sex, violence, etc)?

I was under the impression that bad language was not forbidden under the terms of AdSense, but that nudity was.

Am I wrong?

I Will Make It

12:17 am on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member




I was under the impression that bad language was not forbidden under the terms of AdSense, but that nudity was.

What do you think google gets out of "FU** you"?
Or "FU**ING AS**OLE" and language like that?
(sorry mods)

those words are very assosiated to nudity, and would in some cases be taken as nudity language..

UserFriendly

1:18 am on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Ah, yes. I've just spotted that "excessive profanity" is in the "site may not include" section of the programme policy.

They don't define "excessive", but I guess the original poster is right to worry about the potential for disaster on forums.