The use of language on the forum - mainly the **** suit and singular use.

[James691]

Hello All,

Perhaps it's me and I have become overly sensitive - I'm as broad minded as the next, perhaps more so in the right company - and the odd 'slip' on the use of swearing and sexual expletive does happen now and then and I'm sure I have been guilty myself over the years.

We are all adults - but we are not and even if we were for me that means we know better and expect better. ABR is not an 18 and over site. It is watched by millions and that is not an exaggeration. Many families come to the events that members put on. My own children are free to look around ABR for the bike pictures and the older ones love the ride reports.

I had an 8 year old girl come to me and ask what's a **** suit? plus the meaning of the pre word to the suit. The word also used in the singular to describe members of another forum. So it has become not just a slip but common place and seen as accepted that the use of language that would have a father having a word with an 8 year old for calling someone this at a campsite is fine on a forum.

I thought perhaps it was an English thing and the meaning differed in other parts of the UK. I asked several Scottish friends and Welsh before asking some mates in Northern Ireland.

A vulgar vernacular for a human vulva.

I don't want to come across as Mary Whitehouse but it does bother me that I perhaps cannot let my kids wander around a forum without me checking what is in each thread.

This is not as a Mod but as a parent and a member of the site. For me one of the best things about ABR when it started was the behaviour and lack of trolls, cyber warriors and fools.

I'm not upset or overly emotive at all about the use I just think it should not be a common term of use.

Cheers

James

[special one]

My view...
I'm a mod on another forum that has a swear filter, I've got a potty mouth at times but can most of the time switch it off if with customers (I'm a builder) or with new people, friends' kids etc.

I've been on forums where swearing is commonplace and tbh, it's a crap place to be, it's more aggressive, more winding up etc etc.

So, I use some naughty words sometimes but on the whole I like forums not to be full of swearing, from my point of view, it's a personal thing as I haven't got kids.

Substituting the middle letters of a swear word with asterisks will still have same meaning but can deflect a young persons attention and prevent them from repeating it.

Just my view.

[rocky]

Hello All,

Perhaps it's me and I have become overly sensitive - I'm as broad minded as the next, perhaps more so in the right company - and the odd 'slip' on the use of swearing and sexual expletive does happen now and then and I'm sure I have been guilty myself over the years.

We are all adults - but we are not and even if we were for me that means we know better and expect better. ABR is not an 18 and over site. It is watched by millions and that is not an exaggeration. Many families come to the events that members put on. My own children are free to look around ABR for the bike pictures and the older ones love the ride reports.

I had an 8 year old girl come to me and ask what's a **** suit? plus the meaning of the pre word to the suit. The word also used in the singular to describe members of another forum. So it has become not just a slip but common place and seen as accepted that the use of language that would have a father having a word with an 8 year old for calling someone this at a campsite is fine on a forum.

I thought perhaps it was an English thing and the meaning differed in other parts of the UK. I asked several Scottish friends and Welsh before asking some mates in Northern Ireland.

A vulgar vernacular for a human vulva.

I don't want to come across as Mary Whitehouse but it does bother me that I perhaps cannot let my kids wander around a forum without me checking what is in each thread.

This is not as a Mod but as a parent and a member of the site. For me one of the best things about ABR when it started was the behaviour and lack of trolls, cyber warriors and fools.

I'm not upset or overly emotive at all about the use I just think it should not be a common term of use.

Cheers

James

Nicely put and I think most on here would fully agree

[Richard Simpson]

I've been on forums where swearing is commonplace and tbh, it's a crap place to be, it's more aggressive, more winding up etc etc.


Didn't 'crap' used to be a so-called 'unprintable' word?

Saying 'God' was 'taking the Lords name in vain' at my primary school and would get you a ruler over the knuckles. It's now what teenage girls say to express any emotion higher than mild boredom.

When our Eton-educated PM was asked why he didn't have a Twitter account, he wittily replied: "Tweets can make you a twat!" which I thought was quite a good line.

Most modern kids' biggest taboo word is 'Nigger', which used to be a colour and a dog's name, as well as a disparaging term for a black person.

Does any of this matter?

Buggered if I know!


Sorry.

[Earwig]

.................I don't want to come across as Mary Whitehouse but it does bother me that I perhaps cannot let my kids wander around a forum without me checking what is in each thread.

This is not as a Mod but as a parent and a member of the site. For me one of the best things about ABR when it started was the behaviour and lack of trolls, cyber warriors and fools.....................

+1

We all use expletives at times, face to face in the pub may be acceptable :whistle: , but on an open forum, I find it off putting and degrades what the writer is trying to say :pinch: Kids are the future, don't make the forum inaccessible by use of "naughty words"

I might be boring and old with gastric wind :whistle: but that's just my view B)

[bowser]

I understand where your comming from but why not tell them the truth,

Noun

vulgar. A person regarded as stupid or obnoxious.

and where then is the problem? Its hardly the most offensive expletive.

Same goes for Crap also mentioned here, Mr T Crapper was a victorian salesman who sold and promoted the use of the newly invented WC, the term going to the crapper was used because it was deemed to be LESS offensive than telling someone you were going to the lavatory or toilet, crap is the short form of use.

By the same token, I would always advocate keeping the more well known swear words at a minimum, but its not advertised as a childs forum, and to be fair, no child of an age that doesnt already know what it means shouldnt have unescorted to any part of the internet. And certainly not any forum unless it is specificaly aimed at there age group and monitored as such, its not just swearing, but there are threads which are of an adult nature and are completly appropriate to be here.

[desertraider]

Dont believe the crap i am reading , some people need to get a life , your kids wrapped up in cotton wool , i would put money on it they know alot more than the words twat crap etc

[Oop North John]

If I had an 8 year old I wouldn't be letting them onto a forum that is generally the preserve of much older males.

The use of expletives on here seems to be at a background level and I'd bet most teenagers would have a better knowledge than most of us and it won't be their parents / motorbike forums that increase their knowledge I'd also guess.

[Banzai]

Sorry I could't resist this one
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Bah! humbug it didn't work.

[Richard Simpson]

A very respectable person I know was driving home with his 6-year-old and got involved with a road rage incident with a van driver who started effing and blinding.

My respectable acquaintance just said something apologetic and drove off, then stopped to make sure the kid wasn't upset.

"Dad," the kid said sadly, "I'm going to have to teach you some swear words."