Our major advertisement provider, google adsense, has significantly increased their level of content monitoring and specifically the range of text terms (and images) they find objectionable and require to have removed from a site before they will serve advertisements to that site. Given the staggering percentage of this entire site that revenue pays for, we have no choice but to adjust the forum rules in several key areas. Chief amongst those will be removing the traditional profanity filter immunity Asylum has enjoyed until now.



Let me preface this by stating that that things as they are have worked pretty well for years, we have options for dealing with problems and exceptions, and that this change is not being driven by our thoughts on the forums or the population as a whole. If we could, I'd leave it alone. But that is not an option. This is not a knee jerk reaction because someone said something a step too far towards an admin or another user, or an attempt to quell conversation or topics. You did nothing wrong, but we have to make a change. Without this ad source for revenue, we close the site. Its unfortunately that critical.



So, starting in the next few days, we will be implementing additional words to the existing profanity filter, and enforcing it fairly rigorously, both on existing posts and those going back into forum history. One specific post that prompted this whole issue came from 2007 for example. Such wording will also be added to the forum rules, a copy of which will be posted for comment and review as usual with major rule changes. Most everything else in the other segments of the forum will remain the same, with additional filtered words.



There will also be similar filtering applied to user images, for the same reasons. I expect that to ultimately affect fewer people, but some people quite heavily. For what its worth, we aren't any happier about this than you are, and I and all the staff here appreciate you showing us some forbearance while we figure out how this works going forward.



What this means for you as a poster:

1. We're not going to suddenly start banning people for breaking the filter unless they really try harder than usual to get one.

2. You will see more post edits and nuked posts / threads in current posts than you are used to initially as things get tuned

3. You will see changes to historical posts, particularly ones referencing Knut the polar bear.

4. There will be a major image clean up at some point in the very near future, with an "if it's vaguely person colored or shaped, and the stupid site checker robot might think its ****, get rid of it" aim

5. The profanity filter is in force in the asylum and OOT, and we will be monitoring and enforcing it particularly if google yells at us again.

6. the additional words that probably should have already been on the profanity filter will be added, roughly 500 additional words and terms, much of which comes from the google bad word blacklist which i'm sure you can find if your are curious.

7. any past posts you made that now don't meet the new rule requirements won't be held against you, but they may be nuked or edited.

8. Going forward, filter breaking will be an automatic edit if we see it, but at the same time since it is going to be happening so often until people get used to it, were treating it as a minor thing of no consequence unless someone decides to go out of their way to annoy us to prove a point. That happens sometimes.



On behalf of everyone who is dealing with this issue, I am sorry for the inconveniance and annoyance this will cause.



Regards,



Senior Forum Administrator Kaolian "Tim Pierce" Drachensborn





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