Can we just disable the swear word filter?

[Xuc Xac]

Could we just make a "no swearing" rule and report the occasional person who ignores it?

That seems a lot easier. Posters who can't follow that simple rule are a lot less frequent than posters who have to keep saying things like "prepare the gun/crossbow for firing by setting the action into the ready position" or "His full name was Richard but everyone called him by his nickname that wasn't 'Rick'".

[Morcleon]

You're allowed to bypass the filter for non-offensive uses of a word. For example, you can say "The gunslinger cocked their gun and aimed".

[Xuc Xac]

You're allowed to bypass the filter for non-offensive uses of a word. For example, you can say "The gunslinger cocked their gun and aimed".

Why not just let non-offensive be the default and punish the offensive uses as they occur?

[KillingAScarab]

This sounds like far more work for the moderators without an increase in resources dedicated towards the performance of their duties. An automatic filter, while it must be configured by someone and introduces a bias in that way, is at least consistently applied.

[Morcleon]

Why not just let non-offensive be the default and punish the offensive uses as they occur?

Because it puts more work on the mods as well as failing to prevent accidental uses. By placing the filter there, it's slightly more inconvenient but, instead of people being able to use the words offensively in just a fit of poor judgement, they have to consciously bypass the filter for every swear word they use.

...is what I think the reason is. I'll wait for a mod to come give the actual reason.

[137beth]

Because it puts more work on the mods as well as failing to prevent accidental uses. By placing the filter there, it's slightly more inconvenient but, instead of people being able to use the words offensively in just a fit of poor judgement, they have to consciously bypass the filter for every swear word they use.

...is what I think the reason is. I'll wait for a mod to come give the actual reason.

Also, not everyone is necessarily aware of exactly which words count as “swear words “. The filters offers a convenient way of informing people that a particular word is inappropriate.

[Roland St. Jude]

Could we just make a "no swearing" rule and report the occasional person who ignores it?

Sheriff: No. As noted above, you can work around the filter for non-profanity purposes. We're aware that the filter is inconvenient, but it serves useful forum regulation purposes.