There have been a few questions lately about why we censor certain words and not others.
As a general rule of thumb, we prefer to avoid using the built in word censor of XenForo altogether. It's a clunky system that prevent all uses of a word, including use in legitimate discussion of how racism negatively affect our users, in piece of fictions (it's hard to write a story set in the Jim Crow years, if that's what you want to write, without using certain words).
For us to censor a word, we have to believe there is a significant likelihood of the word being a *problem* on Bulbagarden at a point in time. That may be because it's a growing trend elsewhere on the internet, or because we're seeing it being excessively used here. Over the last several years, we've had virtually no incidents involving racial slurs and the like.
Even then, the decision to censor a word is a stop-gap measure, until we have time (and energy) to take a more proactive approach. The recent decision to censor certain terms was made at a time when the staff was drained (after a year that saw, in short succession, the 20th anniversary, the Summer of Go, and Sun and Moon), and we were deeply concerned with a rising trend involving the use of these words online, so made the decision to censor them until we've had time to finish catching up on all the backlog that's been building up over the past year.
Once we're ready, we'll update the rules and clarify our stance on these words, then take them back off the censor list.
(I think there are also a few medication names on the censored names list, to keep spambot from getting us in trouble by advertising those medications here - but that's a whole other story).
As a general rule of thumb, we prefer to avoid using the built in word censor of XenForo altogether. It's a clunky system that prevent all uses of a word, including use in legitimate discussion of how racism negatively affect our users, in piece of fictions (it's hard to write a story set in the Jim Crow years, if that's what you want to write, without using certain words).
For us to censor a word, we have to believe there is a significant likelihood of the word being a *problem* on Bulbagarden at a point in time. That may be because it's a growing trend elsewhere on the internet, or because we're seeing it being excessively used here. Over the last several years, we've had virtually no incidents involving racial slurs and the like.
Even then, the decision to censor a word is a stop-gap measure, until we have time (and energy) to take a more proactive approach. The recent decision to censor certain terms was made at a time when the staff was drained (after a year that saw, in short succession, the 20th anniversary, the Summer of Go, and Sun and Moon), and we were deeply concerned with a rising trend involving the use of these words online, so made the decision to censor them until we've had time to finish catching up on all the backlog that's been building up over the past year.
Once we're ready, we'll update the rules and clarify our stance on these words, then take them back off the censor list.
(I think there are also a few medication names on the censored names list, to keep spambot from getting us in trouble by advertising those medications here - but that's a whole other story).
