Thread: [GD-Consoles] username dictionaries
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From: Research \(GameBrains\) <res...@ga...> - 2003-05-27 10:21:25
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I'm trying to find a dictionary of vulgar, profane and obscene usernames = so that we can prevent users from signing up for an account using one. = This must be a solved problem but I can't seem to find any resources for = this. I thought perhaps the console people that hang out in this forum = might be more likely to know something about this? Thanks, Brett Bibby GameBrains |
From: Todd S. <to...@ro...> - 2003-05-27 15:07:09
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On Tue, 27 May 2003 18:21:27 +0800 "Research \(GameBrains\)" <res...@ga...> wrote: > I'm trying to find a dictionary of vulgar, profane and obscene > usernames so that we can prevent users from signing up for an > account using one. This must be a solved problem but I can't > seem to find any resources for this. I thought perhaps the > console people that hang out in this forum might be more likely > to know something about this? If by "solved problem" you mean "quagmire of madness in which many a good programmer has been lost", or perhaps "a solved problem the same way natural language parsing is a solved problem", then yes. You'll get to something that handles some of the trivial stuff quite quickly, but you'll never get it all. It's the strong ai problem, and you've got people working against you trying to see what they can slip by your validator. Not only that, but you have people who's legitimate names may well contain substrings that match against your "bad word" dictionary (Sexton, Crapper...). The best you can hope for is to flag suspicious names for later evaluation by a human. It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the thing; "shite" (shitay) is the imperative form of "suru" ("to do") in Japanese, and "phuque" is French for "sea lion" or "seal". Every language in the world used for human discourse has its fair share of the vulgar, the profane and the obscene, and in many cases there's bad phonetic crosstalk with "good" words in other languages. You also have the problem that if you do this kind of filtering, you've legally taken on a policy, which may have wider implications than you think. For example, if you're filtering what people say in the slightest way (even just username validation), in some of the more litigious parts of the world you might find that opened you up to liability if some legal dispute (harassment? slander? mp3 trading?) came up between some of your users, or between one of your users and the outside world. Fundamentally, however, your biggest problem is your users; Anyone who was going to try to use a "bad word" as their user name is going to try to do the same within whatever limits your system imposes. You'll wind up with standard h4x0r speak, rude combinations of allowed words (how do you plan on blocking something like "HamsterStuffer" or "ManPole" or...?), and words that you won't know are offensive until you get mail from the offended. Do you really think you can easily assemble a dictionary of all the racial slurs in the world? If you really must filter user names, you're going to need a person to do it, and you're probably going to want a tool that deals with batches of names and categorizes them based on suspiciousness. You'll still have lots of misses, the human reviewer will make mistakes and be subject to sliding standards based on their mood, but that's about the best you can hope for. Or you could just assign a name, or give them whatever name you find on the billing address. Most users will hate that, though. If it's for kids, and you really, really want to sand off all the corners, you could always make the user name something like "adjective adjective noun", and you supply the lists of from which to pick in clickable form. That solves the profanity problem (unless people can chat in-game, in which case you're screwed anyways...), at the expense of making initial name selection a trying experience for the user: "Sorry, user name 'happy fluffy bunny' is already in use. Sorry, user name 'fluffy happy bunny' is already in use. Sorry, user name...". Todd. -- Todd Showalter to...@ro... |
From: Mickael P. <mpo...@ed...> - 2003-05-27 15:17:18
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>> I'm trying to find a dictionary of vulgar, profane and obscene >> usernames so that we can prevent users from signing up for an >> account using one. This must be a solved problem but I can't >> seem to find any resources for this. I thought perhaps the >> console people that hang out in this forum might be more likely >> to know something about this? > > If by "solved problem" you mean "quagmire of madness in which > many a good programmer has been lost", or perhaps "a solved problem > the same way natural language parsing is a solved problem", then > yes. You'll get to something that handles some of the trivial stuff > quite quickly, but you'll never get it all. > > It's the strong ai problem, and you've got people working > against you trying to see what they can slip by your validator. Not > only that, but you have people who's legitimate names may well > contain substrings that match against your "bad word" dictionary > (Sexton, Crapper...). The best you can hope for is to flag > suspicious names for later evaluation by a human. > > It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the > thing; "shite" (shitay) is the imperative form of "suru" ("to do") in > Japanese, and "phuque" is French for "sea lion" or "seal". Every "Phoque" :) > [...] I agree with almost all that answer. I've been playing on EverQuest for a while, and managing to find a name for my character that got accepted by the system was painful. I'm French, and I didn't understand why my 30 first proposals where rejected :( I think the best system is to clearly ennounce rules, log everything that is said by anyone and allow players to signal problems, the log file can then be used to check if there's really a problem. Then give a warning, and after few warnings get them banned definitively from the game. After a very short while you can be almost sure that people will mostly self discipline. Mickael Pointier |
From: Brian H. <bri...@py...> - 2003-05-27 15:17:48
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>It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the= thing; Like PlanetSide's insistence on filtering out "Jesus", even= though it's a common first name in the Hispanic world. Brian |
From: Jamie F. <ja...@qu...> - 2003-05-27 15:32:54
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That's also a problem if you're a brit in the US; 'Jesus' is a common (and _very_ weak... grandparent-friendly) swear word here, and it's always very strange when some US guy gets offended by it. On the other hand, of course, you can use (iirc) 'tosser' with impunity :) And then you hit words like 'homely', which means 'like a home' in UK English, and 'ugly' in US English. And remember, in the UK we walk on the pavement, but don't have to dodge cars :) Jamie -----Original Message----- From: gam...@li... [mailto:gam...@li...]On Behalf Of Brian Hook Sent: 27 May 2003 16:18 To: gam...@li... Subject: Re: [GD-Consoles] username dictionaries >It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the thing; Like PlanetSide's insistence on filtering out "Jesus", even though it's a common first name in the Hispanic world. Brian ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: ObjectStore. If flattening out C++ or Java code to make your application fit in a relational database is painful, don't do it! Check out ObjectStore. Now part of Progress Software. http://www.objectstore.net/sourceforge _______________________________________________ Gamedevlists-consoles mailing list Gam...@li... https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-consoles Archives: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_idU3 |
From: Research \(GameBrains\) <res...@ga...> - 2003-05-28 00:22:57
|
Thanks everyone for the enlightening posts. Sounds like human approval = is ultimately the only workable solution. We could allow any username = and then check them after the fact when time permits and then revoke or = change them. Does the same (dictionaries) go for in-game chat? I know that AA = changes profanity to asterisks but only if it exactly spelt. I'm = guessing this is just lip-service to trying to show some effort to = thwart it to keep parents happy? You'll never stop "kampers" from using = "tactics" :-) Cheers, Brett ----- Original Message -----=20 From: "Todd Showalter" <to...@ro...> To: <gam...@li...> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 11:05 PM Subject: Re: [GD-Consoles] username dictionaries > On Tue, 27 May 2003 18:21:27 +0800 > "Research \(GameBrains\)" <res...@ga...> wrote: >=20 > > I'm trying to find a dictionary of vulgar, profane and obscene > > usernames so that we can prevent users from signing up for an > > account using one. This must be a solved problem but I can't > > seem to find any resources for this. I thought perhaps the > > console people that hang out in this forum might be more likely > > to know something about this? >=20 > If by "solved problem" you mean "quagmire of madness in which > many a good programmer has been lost", or perhaps "a solved problem > the same way natural language parsing is a solved problem", then > yes. You'll get to something that handles some of the trivial stuff > quite quickly, but you'll never get it all. >=20 > It's the strong ai problem, and you've got people working > against you trying to see what they can slip by your validator. Not > only that, but you have people who's legitimate names may well > contain substrings that match against your "bad word" dictionary > (Sexton, Crapper...). The best you can hope for is to flag > suspicious names for later evaluation by a human. >=20 > It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the > thing; "shite" (shitay) is the imperative form of "suru" ("to do") in > Japanese, and "phuque" is French for "sea lion" or "seal". Every > language in the world used for human discourse has its fair share of > the vulgar, the profane and the obscene, and in many cases there's > bad phonetic crosstalk with "good" words in other languages. >=20 > You also have the problem that if you do this kind of filtering, > you've legally taken on a policy, which may have wider implications > than you think. For example, if you're filtering what people say > in the slightest way (even just username validation), in some of the > more litigious parts of the world you might find that opened you up > to liability if some legal dispute (harassment? slander? mp3 > trading?) came up between some of your users, or between one of your > users and the outside world. >=20 > Fundamentally, however, your biggest problem is your users; = Anyone > who was going to try to use a "bad word" as their user name is going > to try to do the same within whatever limits your system imposes. = You'll > wind up with standard h4x0r speak, rude combinations of allowed words > (how do you plan on blocking something like "HamsterStuffer" or > "ManPole" or...?), and words that you won't know are offensive until = you > get mail from the offended. Do you really think you can easily = assemble > a dictionary of all the racial slurs in the world? >=20 > If you really must filter user names, you're going to need a = person > to do it, and you're probably going to want a tool that deals with = batches > of names and categorizes them based on suspiciousness. You'll still = have > lots of misses, the human reviewer will make mistakes and be subject = to > sliding standards based on their mood, but that's about the best you > can hope for. >=20 > Or you could just assign a name, or give them whatever name you = find > on the billing address. Most users will hate that, though. >=20 > If it's for kids, and you really, really want to sand off all the > corners, you could always make the user name something like "adjective > adjective noun", and you supply the lists of from which to pick in > clickable form. That solves the profanity problem (unless people can > chat in-game, in which case you're screwed anyways...), at the expense > of making initial name selection a trying experience for the user: >=20 > "Sorry, user name 'happy fluffy bunny' is already in use. Sorry, = user > name 'fluffy happy bunny' is already in use. Sorry, user name...". >=20 > Todd. >=20 > --=20 > Todd Showalter > to...@ro... >=20 >=20 > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: ObjectStore. > If flattening out C++ or Java code to make your application fit in a > relational database is painful, don't do it! Check out ObjectStore. > Now part of Progress Software. http://www.objectstore.net/sourceforge > _______________________________________________ > Gamedevlists-consoles mailing list > Gam...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-consoles > Archives: > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=3D553 |