Options Manager -- Profanity Checking

These options are set from the Conv/Msg tab of the Options Manager interface. This allows you to configure the profanity checker, which checks new and edited posts against a list of banned words that you define.

Discus and Discus Pro contain profanity filtering features to prevent messages from containing words from a list you specify. Clever users always seem to find a way around profanity filters, from using symbols that look like the letters of the word they're trying to use to inserting spaces or other nonsense characters within the word. Several options are made available to the board administrator to prevent people from circumventing the profanity filter. The trade-off is, as you increase the security of your profanity filter, you also increase the possibility of false positive readings, which will inconvenience your normal users. Therefore, it is essential that you read the description of what each option does and evaluate your need for that option based on your intended audience.

Enable Profanity Checker: Check this option to enable profanity filtering on your board. No profanity filtering is performed if this box has not been checked.

If profanity is detected: You have two options for how to handle profanity that has been detected. You may choose to convert detected profanity into dots (the number of dots displayed is equal to the number of letters in the banned word). For more security, you may simply present an error message that indicates that profanity is not permitted and lists the words that have been detected as profanity.

Word list: Click the Edit link to bring up the profanity list editor interface (click here for documentation on using the profanity list editor).

Prevent repeated letters in words from bypassing filter: A common method for defeating profanity filters is to repeat some of the letters within a banned word. For example, someone may want to write the word "poop" on your board, but you have banned it. They could just write "pooop" and this would circumvent the filter. If you check this option to prevent repeated letters from bypassing the fiter, "pooop,", "poooop," and "poooooooooooooooooooooop" will all be treated as identical to "poop."

Prevent using first and last letters of banned words with symbols between: A common method for defeating profanity filters is to write the first and last letter of a banned word and to use symbols or other nonsense characters in between. For example, someone would bypass the filter on "poop" by writing "p--p" or "p**p" or even "p#!p". If you check this option, such use of symbols will be detected and disallowed by the filter.

Prevent using s p a c e s in words to bypass filter: A common method for defeating profanity filters is to put spaces between the letters of a banned word. For example, someone would bypass the filter on "poop" by writing "p o o p". If you check this option, such use of spaces will be detected and disallowed.

Treat non-English characters as the English letter they resemble (e.g., treat 'à' as 'a'): A common method for defeating profanity filters is to use letters from non-English languages that look like a letter from the banned word. For example, someone would bypass the filter on "poop" by writing "pööp" (using ö instead of o). If you check this option, such use of non-English look-alikes for English letters will be detected and disallowed.

Treat symbols as letters they resemble (e.g., treat '5' and '$' as 's'): A final common method for defeating profanity filters is to use symbols that resemble letters from a banned word. For example, someone would bypass the filter on "poop" by writing "p00p" (using the number 0 instead of o). Another example of this is "d@mn" for "damn". If you check this option, such use of symbol look-alikes for English letters will be detected and disallowed.