Information about Wordfilter

A wordfilter is a script typically used on Internet forums or chat rooms that automatically scans users' posts or comments as they are submitted and automatically changes or censors particular words or phrases.

Functions of wordfilters

Wordfilters can serve any of a number of functions.

Removal of vulgar language

Most commonly, wordfilters are used to censor language considered inappropriate by the operators of the forum or chat room. Expletives are typically partially replaced ('f*ck'), completely replaced ('****'), or replaced by nonsense words ('fark').^[1] This relieves the administrators or moderators of the task of constantly patrolling the board to watch for such language. This may also help the message board avoid content-control software installed on users' computers or networks, since such software often blocks access to Web pages that contain vulgar language.

Filtered phrases may be permanently replaced as it is saved (example: phpBB 1.x), or the original phrase may be saved but displayed as the censored text (example: phpBB 2.x).

Cliché control

Clichés -- particular words or phrases constantly reused in posts -- often develop on forums. Some users find that these clichés add to the fun, but other users find them tedious, especially when overused. Administrators may configure the wordfilter to replace the annoying cliché with a more embarrassing phrase, or remove it altogether.

Vandalism control

Internet forums are sometimes attacked by vandals who try to fill the forum with repeated nonsense messages, or by spammers who try to insert links to their commercial web sites. The site's wordfilter may be configured to remove the nonsense text used by the vandals, or to remove all links to particular websites from posts.

Humor value

On some forums, webfilters are configured to replace common words with other phrases for no logical reason, purely to inject randomness and humor. For instance, the word "car" might become "wobbly-woop!". These filters are sometimes changed periodically to throw the users off. A similar practice is using a filter to "dialectize" text typed in certain forums, such as on an "Elmer Fudd" forum, "Advanced Search" might become "Edfunced-a Seerch, bork". Of course, filters designed for cliché or vandalism control may result in humor as well; for example, the "First Post" filter on Fark often trips up unwary users, as "I believe I made that clear in my first post" becomes "I believe I made that clear in my Boobies".^[2]

Lameness filter

Lameness filters are text-based wordfilters used by Slash-based websites to stop junk comments from being posted in response to stories. Some of the things they are designed to filter include:

• Too many capital letters
• Too much repetition
• ASCII art
• Comments which are too short or long
• Use of HTML tags that try to break web pages
• Comment titles consisting solely of "first post"
• Any occurrence of the word "gay" or other terms deemed (by the programmers) to be offensive/vulgar

Evasion of filters

Since wordfilters are automated and look only for particular sequences of characters, users aware of the filters will sometimes try to evade them by changing their posts just enough to avoid the filters. A user trying to avoid a vulgarity filter might use "shi-" instead of "shit", for example. Some administrators respond by revising the wordfilters to catch common substitutions; others may make filter evasion a punishable offense of its own.^[3]

Some more advanced filters, such as those in the online game RuneScape, use more advanced methods to detect bypassing, such as "sh1t" instead of "shit". However, the downside of sensitive wordfilters is that legitimate phrases get filtered out as well.

Censorship aspects

Wordfilters are coded into the Internet forums or chat rooms, and operate only on material submitted to the forum or chat room in question. This distinguishes wordfilters from content-control software, which is typically installed on an end user's PC or computer network, and which can filter all Internet content sent to or from the PC or network in question. Since wordfilters alter a user's words without his or her consent, some users still consider them to be censorship, while others consider them an acceptable part of a forum operator's right to control the contents of the forum.

See also

• Internet censorship
• Content-control software

References