Updates needed in "dirty words" database

Barbara
Esteemed Contributor

I almost placed this in Suggestions & Ideas, but I'm not sure how much attention those threads receive. Hence, I chose this forum:

For the second time, I have a product that had to go under review with the note that it might be better rated PG-13 because of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme about a pussycat visiting the queen. Each year sees additional legitimate words co-opted by the slang monsters out there, which are mostly 12-year-olds. Please, Zazzle, review the words in the database, getting rid of  perfectly fine words along with those merely containing listed words. I could name a number of them right here, but they'd probably be blotted out.

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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Badeesie
Contributor III

Depending on the version of pat-a-cake you used, there might be a censored slang there- pat it, and **bleep** it, and mark it....

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8 REPLIES 8

PenguinPower
Valued Contributor III

**bleep** Van **bleep** got out his hoe, went out into the garden, but had to chase an angry **bleep** and **bleep** cat back next-door before he could get to work.

If this is helpful I've found a full list of words banned by Google... I'd guess most places are the same. 99% of them are understandable, but yeah, there's a few times when something needs context to be offensive.. 
https://www.freewebheaders.com/full-list-of-bad-words-banned-by-google/

PenguinPower
Valued Contributor III

Er.. it appears my example of a how completely innocuous, totally non-obscene sentence gets censored got censored... the irony.. 

I believe that's exactly why these things require human review. The context the word//phrase is used in is important, a database of good/bad words can't determine that but it can flag is as, well, needing review by a human who can determine context. 😉

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Barbara
Esteemed Contributor

That's the way it is now--humans reviewing what the database throws at them. They'd have much less to review if the database weren't set up to find words within words.

Perhaps the silliest example I've seen was when someone on the forum whose name was Richard couldn't use the nickname he was called by. We all tested various famous people whose last names included the "four-letter" word. We got things like Charles *ens and Emily *enson.

There must be more than one database, given I can use "pussycat" here but not in the nursery rhyme quoted on a product I just made. I'd even quoted it somewhat incorrectly since the original was "**bleep**-cat," thinking the latter would cause a problem, but no, the modern version also keys in the problem. Note the bleep here on the forum. This new forum has a better, though not perfect, database.

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Barbara
Esteemed Contributor

So, just as I'd planned, I made the Mother Goose calendar in a different format, though I left out the offensive kitty-cat poem, replacing it with another about the old woman in a basket wanting to sweep cobwebs off the sky. It still had to go into review. There must be something in another rhyme that I never learned not to say.

If you feel like being a detective, here's the list of poems via their first lines:

Oh, dear, what can the matter be?
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
The Queen of Hearts
Rain, rain, go away
Little Jack Horner
Ladybird, ladybird
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
There was an old woman tossed in a basket
Sing a song of sixpence
See-saw, Margery Daw
Pease porridge hot

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Badeesie
Contributor III

Depending on the version of pat-a-cake you used, there might be a censored slang there- pat it, and **bleep** it, and mark it....

Barbara
Esteemed Contributor

Oh, for goodness' sake, I bet you're right! I'm using the earliest version of the collection, and I just checked it. Definitely a word used to describe something a needle might do to one's finger. Sigh. The English language is being destroyed.

Barbara
Esteemed Contributor

After @Badeesie  came up with the solution, I waited yet another day, then decided to redo the two calendars, substituting with a version of the nursery rhyme that wouldn't trigger the review. The calendars are now up for sale. In the meantime, the originals are still under review after a week.

Conclusion: If anyone has this sort of thing happen, and if you know why it happened, remake the product. If and when the original gets accepted and shows up in your products, just delete it. It's way, way faster.

Too bad we have no way of deleting a product that's in the review process.

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