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Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

vole.wtf

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Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#211

Post by Osiris »

jawns wrote: post #83
IgorPartola wrote: post #66

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

Around middle school, I decided that I would stop using swear words, because it seemed like getting myself in trouble by letting one slip out at an inappropriate time was more of a bother than just avoiding them and coming up with more inventive ways to express myself. Refraining from curse words has been part of my character ever since, and just about everybody who knows me knows that I don't swear. And you know wha…

I also don't cuss / use profane language. However, I have found a few idioms that just don't quite translate. For example, my co-workers laugh at me for saying "for kicks and giggles" instead of "s$!#s and giggles".

I've also seen people in leadership positions use a lot of foul language and it can really bring down the professionalism. As someone that doesn't use that language I find that avoid the trap of letting something slip in the wrong situation.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#212

Post by userbinator »

lokedhs wrote: post #160
aeneasmackenzie wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah these efforts always fall flat. Buttbuttination is my favorite example.

Yes, that's a clbuttic. http://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Clbuttic-Mistake-

That was 12 years ago, and sadly the Google link to searching for the word now links to countless articles about the phenomenon, instead of actual examples (I gave up after the 5th page.) Several years ago I could still find them, I remember there being an entire mailing list that was censored in that way.

I did manage to find one example that was saved by the Web Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20080725103641/http://www.bluegra...

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#213

Post by D-Coder »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #185
Freak_NL wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I can see the added value of swearing in Klingon — kind of the reverse of bowdlerization.

You could have wedged a couple of a Klingon swear words in there to give us something to start with. The only Klingon I know is q'pla (sp?).

Fikanta filo de hundino! (Not Klingon, tio estas aĉa aro da merderoj.)

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#214

Post by ecpottinger »

IgorPartola wrote: post #66

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

I remember watching a interview where the curse words were bleat out on purpose. At the start the person was clear and easy to understand, but as the interview continued the person got angrier and angrier, and started to swear more. As time continue he was swearing more and more.

At the end of the interview the teacher said "Clearly he was angry, what was he angry about?". No-one could answer, swear words carry some emotions but they have NO useful information beyond that. The more person swears, the less they are communicating.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#215

Post by GuB-42 »

Interestingly, none of the ethnic and religious slurs listed in Wikipedia are censored.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_slurs

Which is interesting because while few people are really offended by words like "shit" and "fuck", "nigger" is often treated much more seriously.

Maybe that's the idea, that font is clearly intended as a joke and a tech demo, and racial slurs are just too f⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ serious.

EDIT:

And none of the bad words related to sexual orientation and disability are censored either, unless they overlap with clbuttic swearwords.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#216

Post by grahamburger »

IgorPartola wrote: post #66

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

I've tried to frame it with my kids in a similar way as automobiles and power tools. They're not bad words as much as strong ones, and could hurt people if used improperly.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#217

Post by gen220 »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #178
hiccuphippo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ESL here. At school one teacher told us using swear words only show your lack of knowledge for better words. I took that to heart and the very few times I've used them, I really had no other option. However I've noticed swear words come more easily to me in English and don't feel as harsh as when I hear them in Spanish. I wonder if it's my lack of vocabulary.

I think it's a part of a broader challenge. In writing circles, there's always advice not to use some specific list of words. The list varies. An example list from a quick googling: - really, very - just - totally, completely, absolutely - thing - some - rather, quite, somewhat, somehow - ... Like all style advice, it's not really a "rule" to follow, but it's surprisingly difficult to avoid some of these words. I str…

At work, we have a trillion custom slack emojis, and one is a big X with the caption “no-just”, encouraging people to refrain using just in sentences like “you just need to set up the Kafka consumer”.

Now that I’m writing this out, it sounds kinda dystopian , but I actually appreciate the doublethink. I believe that pruning “just” (and cousins like “really” “very”, “it” the direct object/noun, “something”) has increased the clarity of my writing.

I think that these words actually do have a use, but only in long recurring interactions where it’s clear that you don’t use these words in everyday communication. Humans are language detectives, and will detect these changes in speech as a signal of emotion. When you’re sincerely emotional about something, these normally vacuous words can be super meaningful. You can even use them in documentation (sparingly), to make a point.

There’s a Tao Te Ching verse about how the wise practice “not-talking”. The implication is that normalizing silence makes words more meaningful: words only carry meaning because they contrast with silence, so if you’re talking all the time nobody will listen to you. It’s a good idea with many implications and applications, and I think it applies to these words. :)

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#218

Post by gorgoiler »

This is shamelessly off topic but what’s the best tool right now for using open type features (like ligatures) for PDF typesetting from simple ascii text?

I’m using asciidoc which has thankfully recently shipped hyphenation support, but I don’t think it supports ligatures. They feel like another must have for beautiful typesetting.

I’m wary of TeX because I find it so hard to get the stylised results I want for our org (a school) but should I be less afraid? TeX based tools always felt content first, which is laudable, but presentation fanciness is a requirement when one works in pitching — in this case to school children.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#220

Post by kelnos »

jawns wrote: post #83
IgorPartola wrote: post #66

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

Around middle school, I decided that I would stop using swear words, because it seemed like getting myself in trouble by letting one slip out at an inappropriate time was more of a bother than just avoiding them and coming up with more inventive ways to express myself. Refraining from curse words has been part of my character ever since, and just about everybody who knows me knows that I don't swear. And you know wha…

I'm glad that works for you, but the implication underneath is that no one "needs" to use swear words, and that they somehow make you a less interesting person. Again, glad that works for you, but everyone's needs differ, and making subtextual judgments about people's lack of ability to be creative without swearing is a little below the belt.

Personally I tend to mainly swear as an exclamation, and try not to use them when describing things or especially people. I don't think that's specific to swear words, though... I prefer not to trash talk people using any kind of language, though I'm certainly not perfect and I do it more often than I'd like.

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