The phrase "You're a dips***" has been deemed "acceptable" by Answerbag, according to an email reply I received regarding an unapproved moderation. Your thoughts?
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ANSWERS: 14
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who cares its just a word
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I guess whoever the mod was considered it coarse or slang, rather than vulgar and inappropriate. I would disagree; it is clearly intended to be more than a mild insult.
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I don't think it's nice to say to anyone, but I've heard worse. I think it's an abrassive, aggressive term meant as a verbal attack on an individual, but they do have to start somewhere... where to start?
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Its still abusive,and no better than some of the other swear words!!Id be most offended!
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Words are words people. That's all they've ever been. And even if the context behind a word is bad (I can't think of a non-insulting way to say dipshit), if you log onto an online forum, you should be damn well ready to hear some foul language.
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That's lame because we couldn't even say homosexual and gay in a question, when they weren't meant to be malicious. F- that. Grrrr.
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Some people are dipshits and need telling so. I am a little surprised that AB permits it, I had thought they ran a very tight ship in terms vocabulary that may cause offence, but I have no problem with it really. Having said that, anybody resorting to childish name-calling like that makes themselves look a bit stupid... dare I say they even look like a dipshit?
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I think it can be used in a question but it shouldn't be used in a comment to disrespect someone else who answered.
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Yes. It is offensive and I too am disappointed at what some of the moderators have been leaving slip by recently.
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Assuming the phrase was directed towards an individual, the phrase is clearly used to cause personal offense to someone and this should not be acceptable on Answerbag. I feel any personal attacks on answerbag, regardless of the profanities they contain, should not be tolerated if they have the potential to cause extreme hurt to an individual. I'm sure whoever this was addressed to simply ignored it and didn't take it personally but the intention was clear. Such things are not what answerbag is for - and I am very surprised your attempt at moderation was not successful. However, I am not sure as to the context of this usage and if a question was asked along the lines 'Someone called me a d--s--t what should I do?' I find this more acceptable. Debating whether profanities should be used in questions when not being directed at someone is a rather different matter. As long as such profanities are kept off the front page I don't see too much of a problem with that although I would prefer it if people substituted curse words with less offensive terms when possible.
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I guess there must be a loophole there somewhere. I don't like it. I'm not a prude btw, I can deal with foul language, and have been known for using it myself once in a while, the problem is when it's directed at someone specifically. Let's try to keep AB respectful people, to me it's one of the reasons it's a much better forum than others on the web.
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In the context of a question where the word is essential to the meaning of the question, we may be more lenient with offensive language. We will, however, start using asterisks to get the point across without actually using the offensive word. Just as we have done with this question. -
The word f*ck is also deemed acceptable, so dips*it doesn't surprise me. The only thoughts I have about it concern the minimum age being 13. I don't use those words in my home around my children. I'm not saying I never use those words, because I do, but it's rare. Honestly, if you can't express yourself without using these less than colorful words, you really are lacking in vocabulary to some degree. However, others just simply like to use those words, or think nothing of it.
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Personally, I think these words mentioned are very offensive. However, since I'm not on AB moderation and this is an open site and it seems they want free speech, what am I going to do about it? I don't think these words should be allowed unless in the context of a question, but I think people would then complain that they couldn't use them elsewhere. Sad, I know, since there are so many other words in the English language.
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