It amazes me that you people claim you want to get more women involved in sailing. That you want to get more kids involved in sailing. And yet on this forum I am seeing the F word used more and more.

Why the F--- do you guys do that on a forum that may be read by women and children?

Do you want your young child, who is reading about sailing, to ask you, "What does WTF mean?" Or, "What does F--- mean?"

Or, if they already know that (unfortunately), why would you want to reinforce that as being acceptable?

And, of course, you all must know that many women find the word offensive to us (even though most of us have been forced to become desensitized to it).

Using that word, no matter how you try to disguise it, demeans the sport and demeans you personally. Sailing is not supposed to be a good-old-boys club, but you make it sound like that.

If you guys are all as highly educated as you seem, I'm sure you can come up with some better vocabulary to express your displeasure about things.

End of rant.

Thanks Mary very well said.

point taken

Well said.

Agreed and guilty.

BTW, You can put "WTF" and/or "F" in the automatic forum censor.

Someone has to say it, so it might as well be me.

Mary, I think, doesn't like to censor anything. It's a slippery slope. I agree.

In defense of offensive language, it offers an insight into the personality, perhaps the character of the speaker. Or, it may simply indicate the degree of emotion the speaker is feeling. It is succinct.

I'm not a parent, but if a child were to ask me what this particular word meant, I would say it's a bad word grown-ups use when they are angry or upset. If they're old enough, in the parents opinion, why not just tell them?! This is not the only place they will hear such language!

But, (why am I going here? I must be an idiot!) The objection is just too pc for my liking. Ladies, or others, I use the F word! I happen to like it. It has come to occupy it's own special niche in our language. No other expletive, or eloquence, quite matches the frustration the word usually conveys.

So, if my language is too offensive for you, use the ignore button, or just ban me from the forum all together.

I've had it with pc.

Sure we can, but, No. 1, you guys will keep coming up with new euphemisms;

and No. 2, then it will say "censored," which is basically the same as saying it, because people can guess the word from the context of the sentence, so it still goes into your brain, just as though it were actually in print;

and #3, would you take pride in using a word that has to be censored?

You guys ever hear George Carlin's explanation of the F word? Great stuff I think.

It's just a word, and if I said it as much as my wife does, I'd be fired. There are times however, when no other word will fit the situation, and racing sailboats seems to bring us to those situations quite often. The S and F word seem to need to be said quite a bit while racing! Also, I thought this was a board for sailors, what ever happend to "Swears like a Sailor..." Or are we now going to be unichs?

All in all, I try not to use it here, because as Mary says, it is a public domain and we don't want to offend anyone, but as I said, there are times when no other word fits. Still, I have never seen it typed out in it's entirety here, just the "F" abreviation. I suppose we could use "Noodle"... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My favorite non-swear words? Cheese and Crackers, Gosh Golly and Darn it all to Heck. But when your boat gets T-boned and your sinking, I doubt that's what's going to come out of your mouth. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Well, it wouldn't come out of your mouth unless somebody had put it in your head in the first place. So why do we have to perpetuate the trend?

True, but I can't see myself screaming, "EXPLATIVE DELETED!" I don't know the "origins" of curse words but thousands of years ago, obviously someone had a bad day, and then it caught on... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Or not! I think expletives derive from the "natural" uncultured personality. Culture being a generally agreed upon set of mores. The dark side is that culture is unquestionably a control mechanism. Whoever establish the mores, establishes class structure and controls society. Hence, a never ending battle between society and the individual.

Personally, I always feel better after I've turned the air "blue". Being a rebel at heart, it helps that the behavior is anitsocial.

So I guess you never take a child or youth sailor out on your boat with you? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

BLEH! werent sailors back in the day outcast? I am talking about the 1200's 1300's etc etc. I love the word and I use it all the time. To me it gives emphasis on what I am trying to say. I am sure Rick can relate being a prior Coastie, we are really good at using this word and I mean all the time!

What is not using this word going to put us all at a higher level pedestal? [censored] that, ide rather be a pirate and use the word all the time.

I am with PETE on this 100%

And yes I have taken teens out on my boat and we had such a blast. I dont remember if the word was used or not, who cares. What happens on the boat, stays on the boat.

Plus CATSAILOR.com is probably .000001% of the internet. Censoring the word F#$k will only bother some members and not do much. I would like to know how many kids or youths and women actually read this forum and actually take offense of the use of the word. How about we try to be world heroes and censor the rest of the filth off the internet[/sarcasm]

Have you received complaints about the use of this word?

Thanks Pete, learned a new word today.

mo·res folkways of central importance accepted without question and embodying the fundamental moral views of a group.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1905–10]

—Synonyms customs, conventions, practices.

Most of the forum softwares allow you to replace each word being censored with another specific word (it doesn't have to be "censored"...you could use "heck" to replace "F". or "Why in the World" to replace WTF or something.

While single-handing I may express myself with bad language, but never in the company of women or children. And I certainly think this forum is of the latter situation.

I can't imagine someone has to use such language here.., after all, your boat can't sink on the forum.

It doesn't happen often, but I agree with Mary, there are better ways to express yourself and not scare away women and youth.
Thanks,
Rick

I wish the "F" word was used less. It is overused and starting to lose its power and become ambiguous. I dread the day it sounds like "... and then this port tack mother-nicer cut across my bows and I T-boned his nicin-butt...." Lets all pull together on this. We need at least another 30 years.
A word only has the power we allocate it. In German, reproductive terms are mild offence,silly; stupid, butt or pig are more offensive.
What is wrong with neutralizing a word's power to young kids right off.
"... F is a word for mating that humans use to shock others because it used to be considered something dirty that shouldn't be talked about, so by using it, it was rebelious and threatening. It still is a powerfull word, but being overused, is becoming less so. Use only on special occassions...." Help save the Words.

Correct. The UBB software that this forum uses can have a set of <badword> -> <replacement word>.

That's like saying "What happens in our home stays in our home." But it doesn't.

And have we had complaints? Only one from somebody who said it was too bad that he could not let his child (who was really into sailing) read our forums because of the language used. One is one too many. And how many people have not bothered to mention it to us and just don't let their kids read the forums?

If you want to use a word like that in your normal life and work, fine, but why do you have to use it on a forum where you are not exactly in a stressful or life-threatening situation?

What the *NOODLE* is up with this thread? :P