Profanity in movie quotes

[Ben41]

It could be argued that placing an asterisk is the equivalent of using a "bleep" to censor language in audio and visual media. Professional media such as newsmagazines and broadcast television will often censor language that they feel doesn't meet their standards and practices.

[Evil Tim]

Yes, and I've never been a fan of it: it's not like it hides what the word is supposed to be (with bleeps you often get part of the word anyway), and it seems to be done in the bizarre belief that children don't already know all those words from the playground anyway. Certainly, our readers are supposed to be big enough and ugly enough to know them, so what's the purpose of pretending they don't? As an addition, it's usually the case that the more respectable a publication is, the more it prides itself on treating readers like adults: tabloid newspapers over here will censor, but the broadsheets and former broadsheets will quote bad language precisely as it was said.

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by Evil Tim

Yes, and I've never been a fan of it: it's not like it hides what the word is supposed to be (with bleeps you often get part of the word anyway), and it seems to be done in the bizarre belief that children don't already know all those words from the playground anyway. Certainly, our readers are supposed to be big enough and ugly enough to know them, so what's the purpose of pretending they don't? As an addition, it's usually the case that the more respectable a publication is, the more it prides itself on treating readers like adults: tabloid newspapers over here will censor, but the broadsheets and former broadsheets will quote bad language precisely as it was said.

A) I think we're overestimating the average age of the users here, and B) technically, language would make something NSFW. Keep in mind, we've censored gore as well, as well as nudity. I'd prefer to err on the side of caution. Aside from it being weird to look at, where's the harm?

[predator20]

I vote not to censor.

Often times quoting what they are saying in the scene explains it better than having "John Connor holds a Glock 36 to his head."

Seeing a profane word in print is much different than it being said out loud.

Also about censoring gore. I thought it was stupid to censor the gore on the SPR page.

[MoviePropMaster2008]

Originally Posted by predator20

I vote not to censor.

This is NOT up for a vote. We maintain a professional standard in text and images (but mostly for nudity, not for gore so much) because people IN the industry use IMFDB as a scholastic resource, something which many OTHER sites cannot claim.

I have seen NEGATIVE response personally when very HIGH RANKING or important people in the industry happened upon a page where there was a lot of vulgar and profane idiocy (mostly by a single former member. No, not the one who was banned, but this member swore every other word). We are not here to look like we're a bunch of profane 14 yr olds.

Of course the valid question is: Does IMDB allow profane quotes? Yes, but IMDB is a behemoth with MILLIONS of users each day (and only 17 mods). There is too much of IMDB that is used for by industry professionals, the 'quotes' section is a very SMALL portion of the site's footprint. Note that PROFANITY is frowned upon in the 'reviews' section or the 'summary' section .... the sections that the general public sees first. Even in the message boards, you put in certain profane words, the software AUTOMATICALLY censors you. If you post too much swearing in your message, the Mods will delete your discussion board post.

Someone always (with regularity) comes up and complains that they can't swear on the main movie pages. I say, "too fucking bad"... those are the rules. Live with them.

[Evil Tim]

Originally Posted by MoviePropMaster2008

Of course the valid question is: Does IMDB allow profane quotes? Yes, but IMDB is a behemoth with MILLIONS of users each day (and only 17 mods). There is too much of IMDB that is used for by industry professionals, the 'quotes' section is a very SMALL portion of the site's footprint. Note that PROFANITY is frowned upon in the 'reviews' section or the 'summary' section .... the sections that the general public sees first.

Errrrrm...Are we looking at the same IMDB here?

They seem just fine with this word when it appears in movie titles, and even this one gets a free pass. (You might want to not have anyone easily offended looking over your shoulder before clicking that).

They seem to have the same policy I'd prefer; users can't swear, but movies can. In the interests of accuracy, you report exactly what is said. Openly censoring encourages further censorship, and I really don't think it'll look professional if our Sin City page is talking about a character called "Yellow B*****d."

28 over here. My take on this is I find "starring" looks childish; everyone knows what you mean, so either say it or don't say it. I agree with you that the kind of swearing-as-punctuation that Oliveira (since we all know who you mean) used was excessive and pointless and should be discouraged (in the kid's defence, according to his user page he actually was 14), but I'm with Yournamehere; if we don't want to quote the line precisely as it was said, we shouldn't quote it at all. Also, since I cap videogames with the subtitles on, some of my screencaps might have profanity in them, and putting little black boxes over words is just going to look silly.

[Gunmaster45]

I'm not html savvy enough to know how to do this, but I think a good compromise on the matter would be one of those word blocker highlights.

If something is obscene or offensive, a highlight will go over it saying "NSFW", and if one wishes to view that word or phrase, they just hover their cursor over it and the highlight goes away.

If someone knows how to do that on this style wiki, think that would work? It'd be useful for spoilers too.

It's by no means a vault blocking all virgin eyes from locked away corruptions, but it would at least put the option in the hands of the viewers, insteading of compromising our reputation.

[BeardedHoplite]

Originally Posted by predator20

I thought it was stupid to censor the gore on the SPR page.

I'm curious, what's the movie?

But I don't think quotes should be censored. There shouldn't be swearing on discussion pages and intros, but quotes should stay intact.

[predator20]

Originally Posted by BeardedHoplite

I'm curious, what's the movie?

Saving Private Ryan.

[MoviePropMaster2008]

Originally Posted by BeardedHoplite

But I don't think quotes should be censored. There shouldn't be swearing on discussion pages and intros, but quotes should stay intact.

The quotes were never an original part of IMFDB. It just started to creep in. IN fact, we are not a movie review site. People just started putting in Quotes like IMDB did and then it started as a nice little trivia item on the main page, but we are first and foremost a GUN REFERENCE IN MOVIES (et al) site. We also don't allow ANY quotes that are not 'gun related specifically'. People who make pages like to put in cute quotes from the film, but many do not. We are not all about the 'quotes'. That is NOT the focus of this site.