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The 'Scunthorpe Problem' Has Never Really Been Solved (vice.com)
dmoberhaus writes: Yesterday, a writer for SB Nation named Natalie Weiner posted a screenshot of a rejection form she received when she tried to sign up for a website. Her submission was rejected because a spam algorithm considered her last name "offensive." After she posted about this, hundreds of other people with similarly "offensive" last names sounded off about how they had experienced similar issues. As it turns out, this phenomenon is so widespread that it has a name among computer scientists. It's called the Scunthorpe problem and it's been a scourge of the internet since the beginning. Motherboard spoke to content moderation experts about its origins and why it's such a hard problem to solve 20 years later. A big reason why the problem has yet to be solved is "because creating effective obscenity filters depends on the filter's ability to understand a word in context," reports Motherboard. "Despite advances in [AI], this is something that even the most advanced machine-learning algorithms still struggle with today."
"This works both ways around," Michael Veale, a researcher studying responsible machine learning at University College London, told Motherboard. "Cock (a bird) and Dick (the given name) are both harmless in certain contexts, even in children's settings online, but in other cases parents might not want them used. Equally, those wanting to abuse a system can find ways around it."
"This works both ways around," Michael Veale, a researcher studying responsible machine learning at University College London, told Motherboard. "Cock (a bird) and Dick (the given name) are both harmless in certain contexts, even in children's settings online, but in other cases parents might not want them used. Equally, those wanting to abuse a system can find ways around it."
...on how silly/childish we still are by schoolyard snickering over "funny names". Apparently, we'll just never grow the fuck up.
The real reason it's a problem is because programmers are lazy bastards, and web developers are stupid lazy bastards.
Yes, I'm a software developer. A disillusioned one.
The solution to the problem has always existed. Turn off the dumbass filter.
How is it, that supposedly grown-up people use childish concepts like being "offended" anyway? What are they? 13? Never left puberty?
A grown-up, mature person either is confident enough, to know that if somebody's statement is wrong, then he's the idiot, and there is no need to do much about it.
And if somebody's statement is wrong, he's able to handle that reality about him.
As soon as he starts defending himself, he shows everyone, that the offense clearly contained something that he considers such a valid criticism, that he thinks it needs to be countered. That is what gives it validity in the first place.
I don't expect a kid to know this, but definitely a grown-up!
The problem today is, that everyone has become such an insecure loser (who'd be the prime target of bullies in any school in the 70s/80s), that everything that might suggest they are not perfect little snowflakes, shatters their entire world and excuse for a confidence. And then they lash out and bully others with "OMGOFFENDED!". Yes, bully. Since this has become the prime form of bullying today. Because you do not even have to attack anyone. All it takes, is them imagining you might mean something in a discriminating/offensive way. And let me tell you, ... they can "find" something in EVERYTHING!
So what we need, is to stop raising our children without self-confidence. Without giving out trophies for participation. And with bullies, for the sole purpose of them growing from letting the bullies bounce off again and again. So they later, in the real world, don't have to become SJW terrorists.
Offended? You are welcome to entertain the thought.
Right up until you think it obliges others.
Which Europeans? The religious ones or the atheist ones?
Sex negativity IS a religious thing and not just a Christian one. Look at muslims that need to have their women covered up from head to toe to avoid getting the urge to jump them any chance they get.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
A big reason why the problem has yet to be solved is "because creating effective obscenity filters depends on the filter's ability to understand a word in context," reports Motherboard. "Despite advances in [AI], this is something that even the most advanced machine-learning algorithms still struggle with today."
The real reason why the problem exists at all is because we think that we need obscenity filters. Because your childs psyche is going to be irrepairable traumatized if it reads words like "cunt" or "penis", right?
Small children don't care. The worst that will happen is that they ask you to explain what that word means.
By the time they care, they already know what it means.
Not to even mention that this is the one area where humanity has managed to turn half the dictionary into synonyms for the words you are trying to filter out. Good luck filtering that.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Sure, spam filters make sense because they spare you to deal with a text you don't want to read anyway (and even then you have to check the spam box every once in a while), but those are far more sophisticated now.
But "profanity filters", especially those that replace "fuck" by "f..k" and are easily circumvented by "f*ck" don't help at all. Everyone knows what it's supposed to mean and just replaces "f..k" with "fuck" in their own head. The stupid beeping in TV-shows is even worse. Not only is it annoying as hell, it also nicely highlights all the swearwords, and everyone just replaces it in their own head anyway.
Language is there to convey meaning, when "f..k" conveys the same meaning as "fuck", then what difference does it make. To try to keep the meaning intact and at the same time censor it doesn't work.
It's not about "protecting" kids either. They're usually pretty quick to figure such things out and have enough peers who'll tell them anyway. They will learn about swearing and foul language anyway. They should learn that such language is inappropriate for them to use, or for adults to use in their presence, just like they learn that it's inappropriate for them e.g. to drink alcohol or for an adult to offer them alcohol.
So who is more offended by "fuck" than by "f..k", when both mean the same thing and both make you think the same word?
Whoever uses "f..k" want's you to replace it with "fuck" in your own head but at the same time claim not to use "foul language".
Now that i find offensive.
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks