Appropriate language on Road.cc

Swearing is like a spice, it should be used sparingly; but things can be a bit bland without it.

I always say if swearing is good enough for Stephen Fry, then it is fucking well good enough for you.

How about this?

http://www.angelfire.com/or/mckennap/fuck.html

Swearing at people is not ok, but sometimes justifiable.

Swearing about situations ect is fair game.

Why the hangups about the cunt C word? It's no worse than the others, really. 

Is naughty words on the internet your biggest worry?

I'm reading Margaret Atwood's 'Hag Seed' in which a performance of 'The Tempest' is to be mounted in a prison by the inmates.

During rehearsals the director insists that all contemporary swear words are replaced by Shakespearian equivalents.

A compromise solution?

Piffle.

For fuck's sake, it's just words. No one dies. 

@bikebot

"and as I've got some Scottish blood it just sounds like someone saying good afternoon. But to return to the landlord analogy, who would actually want to visit a pub full of people shouting abuse at one another, and with random strangers walking up and swearing in your face."

Sounds much like most pubs around my vicinity when I was growing up...

When sites attract and tolerate bad behaviour, this is what users decide to do.

1. Respond and escalate
2. Ignore it
3. Leave

Women are much more likely than men to do 2, and 2 progresses to 3.  Adolescents are much more likely to go for 1, (that's by no means exclusive). Sites only need a few problem users to spiral down very quickly.

And as I said earlier, most site operators just hate dealing with this stuff full stop. You get users either way, people seem to be very happy throwing rude words at one another.  Been there, built it, made money out of it, moved on.

So after what I'd gueess is a a little over thrity years of being online, the phrase "fuck off cunt" aimed at me from people I don't even know, has lost some of its edge, and as I've got some Scottish blood it just sounds like someone saying good afternoon. But to return to the landlord analogy, who would actually want to visit a pub full of people shouting abuse at one another, and with random strangers walking up and swearing in your face. I'm much more inclinded to ignore, and leave early.

Or as some might put it, I'd fuck off.

Be excellent to each other.

Can't imagine an unsupervised kid on the internet is heading directly to a road cycling forum hoping to pick up some new swear words in a 60-post argument about disc brakes.

Oh the delicious irony - a post complaining about the levels of swearing on here unleashes a deluge of profanity

Swearing is optional.  However, use of the word "uptick" shall now result in a plague of locusts streaming from your computer's speakers and feasting on your genitals.

Is this not the same as advocating (or not) the use of helmets?

You don't need to (s)wear one if you don't want to (at least for the time being).

But you don't actually have the right to tell others not to (s)wear (one) either, just because you don't or deem it inappropriate - insert anecdotal 'evidence'... lower education standards/academic standing etc., blah de blah...

I am a Scotsman living in rural Ireland for the last 17 years, who rarely swears in front of my parents - and I'm nearly 50 - and my language is tame in comparison to the locals.

The use of the 'c' word is as interchangeable as the word 'yoke' here in Ireland. i.e. it is used for almost everything, in many situations and is probably the most widely used swear word in daily use...and is also a term of endearment - (I kid you not)

It is a matter of daily life/language (yes even used by children as young as 5 or 6..)

I care not whether it (or any other expletive)  is deemed as appropriate language within this site or otherwise. 

If you want to use bad language, go ahead. Or Don't!

It won't put me off my breakfast

TBH if kids are on here then they're probably cyclists and have heard worse on the street from angry people.

Also school is brilliant for swearing.  

I've not really noticed any excessive swearing here but I'm not 8.

Could I recommend a browser plugin to remove profanity for you? Will be a lot more useful for your delicate sensibilities than trying to censor others.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/webcensor-profanity-filte/ecpm...

Available for Firefox with just a little Googling too.

Great thread.

Regarding the kids, while I don't go effin and jeffin too much in front of them, I think it's pretty futile and actually pointless to try to fully insulate them against swearing. 

The power and reach of a well thought out swear word, especially for young and impressionable minds can be immeasurable:  Generations of insulated, suburban & rural kids across the country (outside the big cities) probably learned more about the world from listening to bootleg tapes of NWA and Snoop Dogg (or later from the likes of Nas, Jay-Z) than we ever would have from the World Service.  The appeal of the language contained in this music was like catnip to us as pre-teens!

When my boy is old enough to understand it, he's having a sit-down lesson with daddy in social science through music, feat. all the above plus, Black Flag, Sex Pistols, Plan B, Run The Jewels and the rest! After that we'll bust out Bukowski...

Context is important.  Sometimes a word can convey strength of feeling unlike anything else.  

I sometimes use them about someone in an article, but wouldn't use them about someone writing on the forum.  

I always try to avoid using "swear" words here, but I don't have any problem with other people using them. As far as I know, all languagues feature swearing and it's a valuable part of communication (although it becomes diluted when used all the time).

Road.cc seems to strike a good balance between restricting users' comments and not being overly abusive. I don't think we need to change it at all.

Most of us experience or take part in swearing every day. However I did used to run a computer tech forum and I clearly remember spending a a couple of hours updating the forum 'dictionary' to replace a bad word with a fluffy ones and sometimes just characters '#@£%^^!' my morallity, my forum, my rules.

I was brought up to believe that people who swore could better represent themselves by being more imaginative with our shared language. I still believe that and sometimes when I swear (which is reguarly) internally I flagellate myself .

As a father of one daughter in year3, I still flinch and feel a little bit sad when I hear her peers use swear words. No matter how desensitised we as adults get to swearing, there will be a point at which our children pick up on these words.  

Should we 'protect' them from these words? Or should we embrace and educate the young to these words? Do we narrow or expand their world by doing so? (similar to the what age for sex education question?)I don't know the answer, but I do think that anyone without children should show respect for the young'uns wherever possible.  I also believe that anyone who shows a lack of respect for this unwritten but moral code degrades our society.  

There's a nice fellow in my club (mid 20's just out of Uni, well edumacated, reasonable rider and kind with his time) turned up to a club meeting asking what part of his £20 dues were going towards him, our club is 200+ and includes MTB, roadies of all types, CX, Kids. His point (and my point) was that there was money being spent on training first aiders, coaches to develop the club and in particular on kids development.. but he didn't benefit from any of this. He was quite enraged about this point. He didn't get any direct benefit from his annual £20 being spent in this way.  His contribution goes into the pot and it was spent to lay foundations for the club for years to come, his biggest gripe about spending money on kids development just showed him to be a selfish human being. The whole point here is that it's fine to have these 'inward views on your personal rights and laws and regulations to the letter' but you will be branded ankles*, by people like me who want to see a bit more common sense to be administered in life. 

*lower than a cunt.

You have to be a real anarchistic rebel to type swear words on an internet forum.. I just worry what on earth these bad boys are going to do next ? 

This forum seems quite the gentleman's club to me. There are some really retched hives of scum and villiany out there.

Take this place for example - www.fitmisc.net - I only visit the place to witness the hounding of Youtube 'fitness' celebrity Jason Blaha (Uber Walter Mitty) but the place is full of real degenerates.