Automatic censorship in the forum software

[DrDu]

I am quite annoyed after re-reading by chance my post in the following thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=668638
I was mentioning the book by Landau and L.i.f.s.h.i.t.z, however the last name was changed automatically to "Lifgarbagez", apparently by some automatic replacement algorithm to avoid the use of rude language. I don't think it is acceptable that the forum software reverses the sense of users statements.

 

[mfb]

That looks like an old problem, there are many recent posts with Lifshitz (and no posts with an unintended Lifgarbagez in the last 2 months), see www.physicsforums.com/search.php?query=Lifshitz&showposts=1&do=process . I fixed it in the post you linked.

 

[jtbell]

Once upon a time, entering 'Lifshitz' resulted in 'Lif***z'. Then Greg or one of the other admins fixed it by making 'Lifshitz' a special-case exception to the censorship filter. I've never seen 'Lifgarbagez' before today, so it must have been a temporary fluke caused by a forum software update or something.

 

[DrDu]

I think the question is more whether one really needs such an automatic filter. Use of inappropriate language is against forum rules, anyhow.
I wonder which other words get mutilated: sextant, tit for tat, homolytic?
And by the way, in Austria, there is a nice village called ****ing:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/****ing

 

[D H]

I've never seen 'Lifgarbagez' before today

You sure? Emphasis mine:

What level of study are you at? Goldstein and Landau/Lifgarbagez are usually considered to be graduate-school level. For intermediate/upper level undergraduates, Symon and Marion come to mind. For introductory/intermediate level, maybe French or Kleppner/Kolenkow or Fowles.

There are over 500 posts (that's the limit of the search engine) with that garbage!

 

[Borek]

This is strange.

 

[jtbell]

There are over 500 posts (that's the limit of the search engine) with that garbage!

And yet, a forum search for 'Lifshitz' also turns up hits during the same period.

 

[mfb]

I did some more research:
Last year had 124 posts with Lifgarbagez, not counting this thread. The last unintended one was Aug5.
58 posts Lifshitz in the same timespan, again not counting this thread. 37 of them were posted after Aug5 (starting Aug14). The 19 others all had Lifschitz in their post title, and usually Lifgarbagez in the post - but not Lifshitz. [Edit: fixed typo]

I think there was some change somewhere between Aug5 and Aug14, could be related to this. Before that change, the filter worked for all posts (but not for post titles), afterwards it allowed to write Lifshitz [Edit: fixed typo] everywhere. I guess this is a historical problem only.

This contains hits: Thiscontainshits. As isolated word, it still gets censored.

 

[Evo]

I did some more research:
Last year had 124 posts with Lifgarbagez, not counting this thread. The last unintended one was Aug5.
58 posts Lifshitz in the same timespan, again not counting this thread. 37 of them were posted after Aug5 (starting Aug14). The 19 others all had Lifschitz in their post title, and usually Lifgarbagez in the post - but not Lifschitz.

I think there was some change somewhere between Aug5 and Aug14, could be related to this. Before that change, the filter worked for all posts (but not for post titles), afterwards it allowed to write Lifschitz everywhere. I guess this is a historical problem only.

This contains hits: Thiscontainshits. As isolated word, it still gets censored.

Lifshitz contains a bad word, Lifschitz doesn't, so wouldn't get caught by the filter. Still strange though.

 

[mfb]

Sorry, I searched for Lifshitz, but got the spelling "wrong" (as in: alternative transliteration) in my post here.