[Zanth]

My wing of the government has no filters because we are the ones that monitor the networks. However, if I hop to another area of the government I have been blocked at times. It is not huge in Canada (at the Federal Level) but it is worse at the Provincial level and I know that schools have it the hardest.

Let's for one moment for argument's sake, state there has never been a complaint; however, we here are aware that this is happening. We know that school's are blocking the site and that some kid who is searching for a cool Christmas present choice will omit headphones (or at least the info at Head-fi) because it was blocked. He can't complain because he never made it to the site in the first place and subsequently, never really searches headphones again because he found what he needed from another site, say a Boze Tri-port and went with that. He now lives his life thinking he has this wicked setup, meanwhile we have helped rip out his soul and fed it to the demon Massmarkamion, all because we couldn't or better wouldn't change our vocabulary just a bit.

 

[KenW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanahachi Ditto Brailledriver Really people, put aside your senses of humor for a few minutes. We all deserve the ability to feed our headphone addiction from places other than home, so let's all agree to stop using a few words of jargon and just put it plainly "guts of amp" "inside of amp" etc Thanks Zanth for bringing this to our attention. While I'm not a fan of excessive censorship, I would be fine if the filters took that word out of circulation.

Absolutely! By using words such as that along with others routinely associated with it, we hurt the site in terms of accessibility/hits which only serve to drive up costs. In the end, it may affect sponsorship and the great deals/service we obtain. In essence, our quips and cute sense of humor may end up coming back to bit us in the backside.

In support of Jude and the community in general, it's high time we got a grip on what and how we post. Take care of what we have or we're destined to lose it. Along the same lines, I'd also caution against the posting of copyrighted material. Another board I frequent has had attorneys issue warnings of copyright infringement which they've taken VERY seriously and are cracking down on bigtime. For those of us who have no financial stake in a board like this, it's easy to sit back and have our fun but for those who've got their blood, sweat and tears...not to mention hard earned cash...invested, it's quite a different story.

On both counts, cooperate....just don't do it.

 

[Flea Bag]

Well I guess if we want to keep our members completely happy and feeling free and at home, then we'll just have to accept that some people will miss out on this place because of the language we use.

However, if Head-Fi had software or some kind of word corrector engine, then all the 'unacceptable' words would be automatically changed to include an asterix at key parts of the word which will still allow everyone to identify it. However, I'm not sure of the nature of all our members, but there is a chance that some people will find this place too sterile and give up on it.

That's just my take. Does anyone have a solution which offers the best of both worlds?

 

[Zanth]

This is my last comment in this thread, but I feel it proves my point nicely.

In the December 2003 Stereophile on p. 12 in the Letters section there is a comment to the Editor regarding iPods & serious listening (so titled) and written by a head-fier (Rodelius) of Spain. JA added a footnote to the letter pointing to a link to Head-fi (in regards to a meta42 that Rodelius had constructed) and you know what the link included? The word P**N!!!! When I read it I was quite ashamed of the site at the time, and saddened that others who read this professional magazine might think the site was run or made up of a bunch of immature teens who didn't know how to use proper vocabulary as opposed to toilet humour/lingo.

Here is the footnote quoted verbatim:

2 A few pics of my headphone amp can be found at www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37400&highlight=spanish +****.


The title of the thread is Spanish p**n. Now how could this not be miscontrued by a filter?

Filters suck but if my son at the age of 8, in a computer lab at school, wants to visit his daddy's favourite site, I would hope that he could without me worrying what he might read, or that the teacher may reprimand him for going to a site with inappropriate material.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flea Bag Well I guess if we want to keep our members completely happy and feeling free and at home, then we'll just have to accept that some people will miss out on this place because of the language we use.

Wrong, and you missed a huge point with your myopic views. All members ARE NOT HAPPY because the site is being filtered. Others are simply NOT HAPPY because they have to read this misuse of the word for electronic components andare duely insulted by it.

In fact, it is a small small portion of the membership who use this term to describe the pictures of their gear or any gear and frankly I don't much care to keep the minority happy if it is a detriment to anyone.

 

[Tuberoller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flea Bag Well I guess if we want to keep our members completely happy and feeling free and at home, then we'll just have to accept that some people will miss out on this place because of the language we use. However, if Head-Fi had software or some kind of word corrector engine, then all the 'unacceptable' words would be automatically changed to include an asterix at key parts of the word which will still allow everyone to identify it. However, I'm not sure of the nature of all our members, but there is a chance that some people will find this place too sterile and give up on it. That's just my take. Does anyone have a solution which offers the best of both worlds?

And those people would not be missed one bit.

Chicago Fire Department computers cannot access Head-fi so when I go back to work next week,I will not be able to log on unless I agree to a content waiver which has become much more difficult since the feds became involved with all our security functions.

There have been members leaving over what they consider "sterile content" since these policies where first enforced and the predicted demise of head-fi has yet to take place. On the contrary,since Head-fi is filtered less it has become much more accessible to many more people and the membership has grown much faster in that time period. Those who don't like Head-fi in it's sterile form should be inclined to leave.

 

[Flea Bag]

Good point Zanth,

It puts things into perspective.

I think someone should start a serious poll if this matter is starting to hurt Head-Fi. Maybe with three choices like:

1. Pro-Restriction notices/auto-correct software/moderator manual correction,
2. Neutral or
3. Keeping things as they are.

By the way, do an advanced search for the word 'p*rn' alone should provide you with tonnes of hits. I haven't done it myself but I'm guessing that a lot of us have used such words before and keeping these words at bay will not be easy without the help of automated software.

 

[Flea Bag]

Woah... looks like some rather heated posts were issued while I was typing my last one above. Well, it appears you guys have misunderstood me. Please calm down. This site has not gone down and I believe it won't go down anytime soon. Anyway, I hope you guys realise that I'm on your side!

I'm just trying to be fair and stating the arguement for both sides. You have mis-understood my intentions guys! Please calm down. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill. We're still standing in a strong position down here!

 

[elrod-tom]

I agree 100% with both Zanth and Tuberoller on this one.

I am as bawdy as the next person when I'm with "out with the boys". However, I think that we can do without a lot of the more colorful language here online. The simple fact that it's being filtered in some locales ought to be enough to make the point obvious. We do ourselves little good by limiting the availability of our online community for no good reason. This IMHO is no good reason.

Anyone who is so bothered by such a reasonable limitation on behavior (motivated out of concerns for the best interests of our community) that he would leave Head-Fi will, in my experience, prove to be a problem in other ways. As Tuberoller says, they will not be missed. To be clear, I am talking about a VERY VERY small cross-section of our membership...this is generally a good bunch of folks.

 

[Flea Bag]

The problem remains: How are things going to be cleaned up? Not everyone reads notices. Do we have the software capability or enough moderators to keep track of everything?

I just did a search on Head-Fi! The result was 16 pages of threads containing at least one word 'p**n'!

 

[elrod-tom]

Try this experiment: type the most "colloquial" term for human fecal excrement and post it...see what happens.

 

[Sovkiller]

Now I have a simple question, is it supposed that someone browse headfi from the school, or the jobsite???

IMHO neither schools, nor jobsites, are places to browse your favorite website, and that includes headfi, you get paid to work, not to go to your favorite website and spend your time there, same as school, we are paying for your education, most of the times, so if you want to browse headfi, why not doing that from the convenience of your home after work or school hours, there should be no filters there, right?

FWIW, if I were an school teacher or your boss, and I catch you browsing headfi, or any other non related to work, or school, site during working or school hours, you will be in troubles or I will fire you, that's for sure....

But I agree that if we could use other words more appropriate, that should be a lot better....but the excuse of the filters, is IMO a little naive.....

 

[Flea Bag]

In reply to elrod-tom:

No thank you!

 

[ampgalore]

I think you guys are being too hard on Flea Bag.

 

[Flea Bag]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampgalore I think you guys are being too hard on Flea Bag.

Thanks, man. But anyway, don't worry about it. I don't blame them because we're communicating in pure words down here (with some faces to help!) but still, without tone-of-voice or visual communications, misunderstandings are bound to happen.