Graphic Content

Question

Should graphic content be allowed in this website?

We are talking about language and quite frequently people may ask questions or provide answers that contain graphic content. Should there be a flag or other process to protect users from seeing this information (even if the content/context is correct in producing the vulgar language)? Take this answer for example.

Definitely seems like a correct answer but not sure I would like unsuspecting individuals (like me) to run into this language.

My wife, teachers, and extended family and friends, purposefully do not teach any Chinese "curse words" or phrases to me. Should CL adhere to such standards?

If not then probably adding some protections might be in order to:

• Prevent curses from being shown in search results
• Automated tagging of such content and giving users ability to filter from the Q&A

Useful questions might include:

1. How do other language sites handle these possibilities?
2. Should we be simply flagging any graphic content regardless of any otherwise perceived educational value?

Comments

If I've missed a site rule that already covers this issue please point it out me and thanks taking the time to read, comment, and respond.

Answer 1

I don't think there's any current policy, other than an expectation of scholarly tone. In other words, it's acceptable to discuss different Chinese terms for defecation, but it's not acceptable to randomly sprinkle the word "poop" throughout an answer.

I took a quick look at other sites, and I see that the English Language and Japanese sites have offensive-language tags. One option for our site would be to create this tag, and encourage our users to apply it when appropriate. If we did that, then sensitive users could choose to exclude that tag from their view, and help apply it to any questions that get missed.

Anyone who has 150 reputation can create the tag, so feel free to do so.

My personal opinion is that there are not enough questions with offensive content to justify the effort required. However, I have no objection to other people doing the work.

Of course, anything that could be considered hate speech or abuse should be flagged as offensive, and the moderators will delete it. Note that flagging and tagging are two different things. Flagging is a request for help from moderators.