Should swears be allowed in avatars, signatures, and/or usernames? Re: Manga Updates

[Takiko]

Hi,

I am an imperfect member of this forum, who after not visiting the forum for about 2 years is putting her neck out for some help.

I am writing this because I have talked to a moderator, and a site updater partially via the moderator at http://www.mangaupdates.com concerning this matter, and admittedly I'm not satisfied by the outcome.

About a week ago, I brought to the attention of a moderator that the avatar of a member of the site contained a swear word, and in the forums rules it says, “No hardcore swearing. It's okay every now and then, but keep it minimal.” The avatar has a character saying “Axel thinks your f[***]ed [my censor]” that is slightly pixelated. When she answered my private message, she said she did not find it offensive, so she said that she would contact a site updater. She answered me back in 2 days that he was okay with the avatar, and so it would stay.

I did one more reply to her, and if I recall correctly, I questioned if all of the staff and moderators agreed with this choice, and also invited the site updater to join the conversation (and he could see what we had previously mentioned) and he agreed with her. He even agreed when she said that I judged the member with the questionable avatar too harshly, and them as well.

By posting this in another forum altogether, I was hoping to find any other members of Manga Updates that are not okay with swears in avatars, signatures or usernames, or even that they understand that although they are not offended by them, they understand why they are not permitted in certain areas of the site, even if they are included in such items as scanslation group names, and titles of manga. When researching the matter with other forums, sometimes threads on the matter were approximately half-and-half in regards to swearing allowed or disallowed in forum posts. There were mentions of, “Well they're just some syllables strung together. Why get offended?” Even if there were concerns about children viewing the site, more than once it was mentioned, that there are kids that swear more than the members of the forum, so why were they attempting to censor the members of the forum for behaviour that was already in the kid's character.

I have been tempted to PM all the staff members of the site that have been active (within about the last month) to see where they stand, and if they agree with the moderator and site updater I talked to. This is fairly aggressive, even if I PM them all individually, and they may or may not communicate with each other regarding this.

I was even considering polling the whole site, in which case I guess there is a chance I am causing drama and since I'm a headache, the site admin that don't like me or my position on the matter, will even go to the extent of banning me and I lose my account privileges on top of it. I'd like to think they wouldn't go that far, but hey, I thought that the member's avatar wouldn't be allowed according to the rules, and it has been. The allowance of a member's avatar having a swear isn't as damaging to my enjoyment in of the site, as say, a banning, but it's definitely disappointing.

Anyhow, I hope I was clear about matters, but feel free to ask for clarification.

[CommanderEVE]

(I saw you had two threads, I thought you had only created one and then closed it down, as I had accidentally closed my window before I posted this message, meaning I had to find the thread again, and I found the one you had deleted, thinking it was this one.)

I think you could have handled the situation a lot better instead of going ‘all-out’, to go as far as to talk with all the moderators after getting your answer from the one moderator you spoke with previously which is why they most likely banned you, due to you being persistent. Although, did they warn you beforehand?

From what I have read, it seems that the material in question was not that bad, and that you were the only member on the site offended by it. Where there other members offended?

Yes, the rule: ‘No hardcore swearing. It's okay every now and then, but keep it minimal.’ Could be made clearer for some members, but it seems self-explanatory. For this occasion, it seemed to fit within the stated rule, which is why the moderator you spoke with did not have a problem with it, it is not as the avatar was directed at someone, it seen as more funny than anything else. It is not if everyone is doing it and the issue is prolific. I could show you some examples of what would class as ‘hardcore swearing’, but then it would be too much for the forum. Also, children, mostly older children (8-12) hear minor swearing from day to day, such as ‘arse’, ‘bloody’, ‘bollocks’, ‘damn’, ‘Godamn’, ‘shit’ and a few others I could state, the ones you hardly think as swearing. Also, censoring swearwords only makes them more sensitive.