Strange choice by profanity filter

[evilsofa.7296]

I have the profanity filter in game set to "Normal". Recently my guild leader changed the guild message of the day and it included a ---- which was odd because they don't normally swear. and the context didn't make sense either. The sentence was "Decos for ---- from world boss drops appreciated." Turn off the filter, and the filtered word is Fion, the name of the [Guild Decoration Trader.](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fion "Guild Decoration Trader.") Google to see if "fion" is a swear word I didn't know about, and even urban dictionary doesn't seem to think so.

 

So, why are you filtering the name of one of your NPCs?

[Manpag.6421]

The profanity filters have always been odd and somewhat over-sensitive, and NPC names that trigger the filter are nothing new. I used to use a lot of boss names as character names in GW1 and had several rejected because they supposedly contained a profanity.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"evilsofa.7296" said:

> So, why are you filtering the name of one of your NPCs?

 

That's OK, I've seen odder things than that:

 

In Runes of Magic, the same filter was used for all languages, which made it hard for French players to apologise for being late, and also made it hard for them to talk about their cellars / basements.

 

"I am late" ====> "Je suis en R E T A R D"... It's a perfectly innocuous word in French.

"my cellar" ====> "ma C A V E"... In English, it's somewhat obscure slang for, er, female genitalia, and not at all relevant to French.

 

In ArcheAge, when I played, the filters would bleep out the name of one of the major cities. Sadly, it was the most common "let's meet at X" meeting point.

[Zaraki.5784]

Don't take this as a persona insult but, if you don't have children, why do you use profanity filter?

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> > @"evilsofa.7296" said:

> > So, why are you filtering the name of one of your NPCs?

>

> That's OK, I've seen odder things than that:

>

> In Runes of Magic, the same filter was used for all languages, which made it hard for French players to apologise for being late, and also made it hard for them to talk about their cellars / basements.

>

> "I am late" ====> "Je suis en R E T A R D"... It's a perfectly innocuous word in French.

> "my cellar" ====> "ma C A V E"... In English, it's somewhat obscure slang for, er, female genitalia, and not at all relevant to French.

>

> In ArcheAge, when I played, the filters would bleep out the name of one of the major cities. Sadly, it was the most common "let's meet at X" meeting point.

 

This is sometimes known as the [scunthorpe Problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem) in English, after a town in the UK that, uh, shall we say, often triggers this issue. Sadly, until we teach computers to understand context, it will forever be an issue.

 

(Realistically, it will always be, because you can't stop people figuring out some subtle way to be racist if they wanna be racist, etc.)

 

edit: I'm half disappointed the filter didn't kitten out the name of the problem. ;)

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

I'm aware of that problem (and of which four letters in the name of that town are the cause of it), but it's worth noting that those French words are *whole* words that coincide exactly with a "bad" word in English rather than larger words that contain a bad word.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Long ago, Kessex Hills was filtered. Lol.

The Fion snafu comes up periodically on the forums. I'm guessing it's way down on the priority-fix list. (It may be the French word or slang for posterior.)

 

Good luck.