News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The naughty username checking system used by Twitch by noneeeed on Thursday October 07, 2021 @05:19AM (#28783989)
It's getting particularly problematic for international sites. What constitutes offensive language in one country might be a perfectly normal name, or product, in another country that uses the same language, let alone in another language.

There's been a running joke on the UK Reddit subs recently about people getting short bans for using the term "faggot" as it's now on some automatic, site-wide blocklist. The bans are completely context free, so people are supposedly getting banned for discussing the food product, a kind of large meat-ball made primarily from minced offal. The same happens with "fag", meaning a cigarette.

Re:The naughty username checking system used by Twitch by dkdbejwi383 on Thursday October 07, 2021 @08:25AM (#28785323)
There's the opposite problem too, where "fanny" has a different meaning in the UK vs. USA. There's the classic line from "The Office" about it ("over there fanny means your arse. Not your... minge") and I think most folk are pretty aware of the American meaning here these days.

I wonder, is it too much to ask that we (as in, the various English speaking places) understand the different meanings of words that are offensive in one dialect but have a different and mundane meaning in another dialect?