Some words have both inappropriate and appropriate meanings, and this suggestion would replace those words with their appropriate meanings for people who cannot edit the strings. This suggestion would replace the C-word with “male bird” and the B-word with “female dog”, for example.*

Due to those words and some others with both appropriate and inappropriate meanings' taboo natures, it is unlikely that such words would be encountered. Because of character limits, the appropriate meanings of such words, including less-used real ones, will count as the length of the inappropriate synonym (e.g. “male bird” will now count as 4) when determining the number of characters left.

UPDATE (November 30, 2023): This suggestion will also be for the forums as well as the main site in place of certain words being filtered on the forums, causing the content to not save, with the new system implemented this month.

For the purpose of not using an actual bad word, let's assume that “printer” had an inappropriate meaning, and its appropriate meaning was “printing machine”. Let's say I typed “My printer doesn't work.” It would then show as “My printing machine doesn't work.” for others and anonymous users.

Za-Chary wrote:

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

To help reduce confusion, words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings will still be filtered for New Scratchers.

medians wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

LOLL I'm now going to start saying printer you instead

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

To help reduce confusion, words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings will still be filtered for New Scratchers.

What if a Scratcher posted the inappropriate one?

New Scratchers being prohibited from using those words will make it easier and take less time to deal with Scratchers using those words inappropriately.

randomguy3513 wrote:

Wouldn't that just start catching on what gets censored and then start using those words as slang

ExampleBadUser wrote:

Your a female dog!

Wouldn't that just become slang for the B word in inappropriate contexts and the other words you mentioned right when people start catching on.

Most people use the replacement phrases appropriately, so I don't think so. The only reason someone might use the appropriate phrase for an inappropriate meaning of an inappropriate synonym would be to bypass censors, which violates the SCGs.

yadayadayadagoodbye wrote:

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

yadayadayadagoodbye wrote:

I dont believe any sane person would use the b word as a way of saying “female dog”, (as its simply barely not used that way), and “your a female dog” isn't exactly respectful either.

Not to mention this just adds a list of bypasses for people, since anyone using these words would know these words mean their vulgar version, and thus this would simply allow people to use scratch to discuss not very appropriate things (for example, things about the chicken)

I mean, very few people use such words appropriately. This suggestion would people who do so as well.
snip-

However, it benefits more towards the people who uses it in innapropriate ways by giving them a bypass. Sure, ST can always delete them, but then whats the point in having a filter at all?

Having a filter even after this suggestion gets implemented prevents inappropriate words with no appropriate meanings.

yadayadayadagoodbye wrote:

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

yadayadayadagoodbye wrote:

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

yadayadayadagoodbye wrote:

I dont believe any sane person would use the b word as a way of saying “female dog”, (as its simply barely not used that way), and “your a female dog” isn't exactly respectful either.

Not to mention this just adds a list of bypasses for people, since anyone using these words would know these words mean their vulgar version, and thus this would simply allow people to use scratch to discuss not very appropriate things (for example, things about the chicken)

I mean, very few people use such words appropriately. This suggestion would people who do so as well.
snip-

However, it benefits more towards the people who uses it in innapropriate ways by giving them a bypass. Sure, ST can always delete them, but then whats the point in having a filter at all?

Having a filter even after this suggestion gets implemented prevents inappropriate words with no appropriate meanings.

yet it doesn't prevent innapropriate words with appropriate meanings used innapropriately, and as most (if not all, theres like atmost 2, maybe 3 of them that doesn't have appropriate meanings) innapropriate words have appropriate meanings, this just gives people a free bypass.

This way, instead of getting muted, people can literally just use this system to communicate about innapropriate topics on scratch…
And sure, you can report them, but you can also report people without the filter, the reason the filter exists is to prevent the ease of discussing about innapropriate topics, while this suggestion would straight up defeat nearly the entire point of the filter by making it easy to discuss about these topics again…

New Scratchers being prohibited from using such words at all decreases the chance of inappropriate uses than if they weren't. Content containing such words will be added to the report queue immediately upon being posted, but neither prohibited nor removed. Replacing such words with their appropriate meanings not only benefits users who use such words appropriately, but can distort the meaning of the posted text for inappropriate uses.

Also, most users who use Scratch follow the SCGs, so I don't see any problem with my suggestion.
Comparison of systems on such words
Full censorship of words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings

• Deters inappropriate use of the words
  

• Innocent users get sanctioned, such as being muted
  
• To avoid getting sanctioned, users have to use substitutions that look exactly like the original character, which is against the CGs.
  
• Underestimates meanings that follow the CGs
  

Replacing words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings with their most common appropriate meanings (this suggestion)

• Does not underestimate nor undermine appropriate meanings
  
• Innocent users do not get muted
  
• Innocent users get away with using such words, as they will be replaced
  
• Not being given a replacement option is a pretty effective deterrent to inappropriate meanings
  
• If an innocent text is too long to be saved, replacing appropriate phrases with synonyms with inappropriate meanings is an option
  
• New Scratchers still being prohibited from using such words makes of trolling and spamming a little bit harder
  
• Likely distortion of inappropriate uses of such words reduces inappropriate content and can effectively deter inappropriate uses of such words.
  
• With most users following the SCGs and there being other sanctions against inappropriate content, even if people use such words inappropriately, the other sanctions together can still be effective.
  

• Makes it easier to spam or troll, even though the ST can remove such content
  
• Makes it easier to post inappropriate content, even though the ST can remove such content
  
• Unnecessary and tedious to add/manage
  
• Can lead to miscommunication by having phrases replaced
  

Anticipated moderator comment:

I don't think we will be adding such a system unless and until such words somehow get reappropriated. More importantly, this suggestion kind of benefits more to people who use such words inappropriately because the inappropriate words will be replaced with something appropriate. As people mentioned, phrases such as “female dog” can be used in a disrespectful/inappropriate way sometimes.

Short description: unnecessary and too easy to abuse
“inappropriate” means that the meaning violates the CGs
“appropriate” means that it follows the CGs
*Don't shoot me down with “but most of the time, these words are used inappropriately.” If you look them in a dictionary, you will see that the meanings I brought up are real. ST, if you remove the words, alert me, but do not ban me.
Gray text is not included in the original post.

The scratch devs do not need the pain of setting this up, It'd probably be super tedious. There's no way they'll find a way to block every single odd pickup line- besides, some people have dirtier minds than others, so what's considered ‘inappropriate’ will vary from user to user.

bump

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

Za-Chary wrote:

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

To help reduce confusion, words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings will still be filtered for New Scratchers.

Za-Chary wrote:

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

LOLL I'm now going to start saying printer you instead

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

To help reduce confusion, words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings will still be filtered for New Scratchers.

What if a Scratcher posted the inappropriate one?

medians wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

What if somebody really did mean the inappropriate meaning? If someone appeared to say “printing machine you,” that should be reported since “printer you” would be vulgar and disrespectful, but if someone reads “printing machine you,” they might be confused over what that's supposed to mean, and they might not make the connection that “printing machine” comes from the word “printer.”

LOLL I'm now going to start saying printer you instead

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

To help reduce confusion, words with both inappropriate and appropriate meanings will still be filtered for New Scratchers.

What if a Scratcher posted the inappropriate one?

New Scratchers being prohibited from using those words will make it easier and take less time to deal with Scratchers using those words inappropriately.

bump

bump

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

For the purpose of not using an actual bad word, let's assume that “printer” had an inappropriate meaning, and its appropriate meaning was “printing machine”. Let's say I typed “My printer doesn't work.” It would then show as “My printing machine doesn't work.” for others and anonymous users.

Context is a pretty difficult task to handle, especially when there are many words with hidden innapropriate meanings. I doubt this would be easy to implement, even at a basic level.

ajskateboarder wrote:

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

For the purpose of not using an actual bad word, let's assume that “printer” had an inappropriate meaning, and its appropriate meaning was “printing machine”. Let's say I typed “My printer doesn't work.” It would then show as “My printing machine doesn't work.” for others and anonymous users.

Context is a pretty difficult task to handle, especially when there are many words with hidden innapropriate meanings. I doubt this would be easy to implement, even at a basic level.

Words around the replacement can be used to make it easier to determine context.

Directly from Paddle2See:

“We actually had this capability in the first version of the forums. An automatic replacement filter! It was great around April Fool's Day. It was also good for serious filtering - you could either put a more appropriate word or just an asterisk. So I know it can work. It was a built-in feature that came with the forum software we were using. Would we ever implement it in the rest of Scratch? I have no idea. Multiple languages would make it very interesting to say the least.”


So this is not officially rejected, but neither do we have any plans to implement it in the current version of Scratch/forums. Leaving this open as there could be some really interesting discussion here! But please report to be closed if you think it's run its course.

bump

bump

so like the forum *, but for the rest of scratch?

SonicFanX123_321 wrote:

so like the forum *, but for the rest of scratch?

Yes, but it replaces the words with their appropriate meanings to ensure low chances of false reporting.

CodeLearnerSai wrote:

(#16)

SonicFanX123_321 wrote:

so like the forum *, but for the rest of scratch?

Yes, but it replaces the words with their appropriate meanings to ensure low chances of false reporting.

ah, I see

bump

But there's a problem, let's just assume “printer” can also mean people who work at printing mills before the process was automated (I don't know if that's the case or not, but we're just going to assume it is).

So when someone says “my dad is a printer”, it would get translated into “my dad is a printing machine”, which is not good because will cause confusion for users.

sharkode wrote:

But there's a problem, let's just assume “printer” can also mean people who work at printing mills before the process was automated (I don't know if that's the case or not, but we're just going to assume it is).

So when someone says “my dad is a printer”, it would get translated into “my dad is a printing machine”, which is not good because will cause confusion for users.

The OP's suggestion is not to censor the word “printer” specifically — they are only using it as an example to demonstrate their suggestion. Any word on Scratch that is considered inappropriate, even if a certain meaning of the word is appropriate, will get censored regardless of the meaning/context in which the word is used. So if “printer” really was a bad word that is worth censoring, then saying “My dad is a printer” on Scratch would be censored anyway.