A modification to the swear filter - A Smart Filter.

[Mooclan]

Hello.
We all know about the in-game issue with people saying things like "Rekt", "Get Good", and other derogatory terms and phrases that really are quite disappointing when you think back to how friendly MCSG used to be back in 2012 compared to nowadays.
And you see people raging about it, ranting about it, and shouting out to MCSG to do something about it. Operation Cleansweep has, I think, made some effort to change that, but it's simply not enough.
I believe that what MCSG needs in order to help fix the situation is a chat alteration.

How the swear filter currently operates:
If a person swears, the plugin automatically changes their message to something such as #@!%. It can be easily avoided by simply putting a period, apostrophe, or other blemish between any of the letters.
Currently, there is a limited selection of words that are filtered out. This system does not include words such as "GG", "Rekt", "GF", etc. GG and GF are intended to mean Good Game and Good Fight, so that's why they're not altered, but Rekt and other similar phrases simply have not been added, and also because of words that may include that combination of letters, such as "Ugg boots" (Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of anything else fast enough.)

What I'm suggesting is a rework of this system.

• Punctuation is ignored when the system checks for words to filter. Things such as periods, apostrophes, colons, semi-colons, dashes, (Perhaps even spaces?) etc. are ignored, that way the swear filter is more comprehensive and encompasses a wider range of exploits.

• Slang such as "Rekt" are filtered out, or changed to something much less insulting, such as "killed". "Get Good" etc. would be changed to "Good Game" instead.

• Abbreviations like "GG" and "GF" are changed to their polite counterparts, "Good Game" and "Good Fight". "GL" should, likewise, be changed to, "Good Luck".

• Check for spaces. As previously mentioned, we don't quite want things like "Ugg Boots" changed to "UGood Game Boots", so check for spaces on either side of the abbreviations or terms. However, things like "Rekt" are often combined, such as in "GetRektM8" or "RektM9" and whatnot.

• Swear filter identifies individual swear words and changes it to much less harmful meanings. Things such as the F-word could be changed to Firetruck/Fluff/Fudge, and the 4-letter-S-word could be changed to Slip or Ship. Something silly. As previously mentioned, "Get Good" would be changed to "Good Game", etc.

• Automatic warnings. Every time someone activates the swear filter, they should receive a message along the lines of, "[MCSG] You have been warned. Please do not swear or use derogatory terms. Your message has been filtered." And perhaps even include which word it was changed to so that they can figure out what they said that was bad.

Some examples of terms that should be censored or altered: (Please suggest more, I haven't seen many used recently, only rants of people who have been subjected to this. I don't go in-game much.)
GG, GF, Rekt, Pwn, GetRekt, Get Good, Get F*ck*d, F-Word, S-word, videos of a adult nature, D*mn, @ss, l2p, ez
(okay, I'll be straight up, I don't really feel comfortable listing these. Get your own list )

Opinions? Any suggestions for modifications, alterations, things that should be added or removed to this list and/or the swear filter?
Thanks for reading!

 

[Sheldor]

Personally I think that this should definately be added. I think that too many fights are starting over someone saying something simple like gg or gf, but if the person took the time to write it out completely, the negative context would be nonexistent. Great idea, hopefully it gets added

 

[Giggity69Goo]

It's a great idea Moo...problem is I think I have seen threads about this already :/ But still a great thread!

 

[jonnysurvives]

On badlion they have a system where messages containing terms such as 'ez' and 'rekt' are blocked and result in a message to the player saying something along the lines of 'How about saying something more respectful, like GF (Good Fight)?' I could definitely see this working on MCSG too.

 

[Cartercraft99]

If someone sees Good Game, they know it is most likely someone who said GG, and they will take it as someone saying GG and will end up raging as usual. Another thing, GG isn't necessarily always a bad thing. It could have actually been a "good game." But besides that, I think this would be very beneficial if it was implemented (especially improving the profanity filter because it's really annoying when someone separates a bad word with a comma.)

 

[Captain Dak]

Great idea. Regarding the part about the filter ignoring punctuation and spaces, I know this is possible because I play Star Wars the Old Republic, and their filter does just that. For example, any word for "poop" including "turd" is filtered in a way that won't even allow it within other words, so you can't even say "Saturday" without it being filtered. We shouldn't go that far, but I think that'd be in the right direction. (Also, not saying poop words should be filtered, not too sure why they are in that community. )

 

[R0WAN]

People will find a way around any filter made, it would take too much effort for not enough results. Plus too much filtering is just annoying

 

[Bamber]

Pls add a TL DR

I love your posts Moo, but sometimes I'm just way to lazy to actually read the entire thing ;-;

 

[Pixelatorx2]

-snip-

Here's my 2 cents on this topic.

• Punctuation is ignored when the system checks for words to filter. Things such as periods, apostrophes, colons, semi-colons, dashes, (Perhaps even spaces?) etc. are ignored, that way the swear filter is more comprehensive and encompasses a wider range of exploits.

This can easily be implemented, its just as easy as a .replace(".", "") method. The thing is, its not the time it takes its the amount of .'s and stuff people can put in, there are way to many different things and it would take some time. If the developers take their time out and do it, it would remove things like f.*ck etc. etc.

• Check for spaces. As previously mentioned, we don't quite want things like "Ugg Boots" changed to "UGood Game Boots", so check for spaces on either side of the abbreviations or terms. However, things like "Rekt" are often combined, such as in "GetRektM8" or "RektM9" and whatnot.

GetRektM8 can be removed by simply blocking, "rekt". Bukkit would automatically find "rekt" and remove it. The part where you say "check for spaces" is just about impossible. I mean, it would take logging messages into arraylists and comparing etc etc.

Gotta sleep now, will update later.

 

[Fireized]

Unfortunately theres never going to be a way to filter out things like that, humans will simply always be able to get around programmed swear filters.

 

[RC_4777]

Sounds "smart" (heh)

 

[themastern00b]

I really don't find it necessary to censor things such as GG, or GF. I guess I can see why you would want other things such as l2p and ez to get censored, but I find it highly unnecessary for some the things you listed. Why would you need to censor GG? It really isn't that bad of a thing to be quite honest. When somebody says GF, they are just saying good fight? It shouldn't really make anybody angry when people say those 2 things.