User:Jtl/Rules Regarding Four-Letter Words in Rationalwiki Articles

ALERT: The article you are reading contains words which contain between

three and (six minus one) letters, exclusive. If you are offended by words 
containing exactly two-squared letters, or are under 18 years of age, please 
do not read (fuck almost made it through the warning!) further.

After the debate in the Fuck page regarding a particular word, it has become obvious that a well defined plan for handling four-letter words is required. Here are just a few ideas:

Blanket Ban on Four-letter words

No words containing four letters are allowed, including but not limited to:

• four
• word
• fuck
• user
• shit
• goat
• Kels
• Human

Ban on four-letter words, but allowances for non-curse four-letter words with educational value, with censorship options

We could have some tolerance for four-letter words if certain conditions are met. This would be subject to the proper vetting of the word, and it being flagged as four-letters so the user could opt for Rationalwiki not to display these pages to them via their user options.

It should be noted that permitting words normally considered as obscenities when they are used in a non-abusive context may not be a good idea. In the British Parliament last year it was decided that the word 'shit' would not be considered unparliamentary (i.e. unacceptable) when it was used to mean 'excrement'. A columnist pointed out that this could lead to such official statements as 'There has recently been a great increase in the number of bastards, due to teen-age fucking' which might offend the electorate.