“The past few days have seen a large number of people commenting on this site who have been jerks, who have moaned and groaned over nothing, and who have been, really, just negative nellies about everything.”

… Or was that really Ned Flanders?!

Negative Nellies … What the ..!

She’s climbing the mountain to the nunnery and stubs her toe

“OH EFF!” She yells

Then “Oh Sheet I said F!”
Then “Oh eff I said Sheet!”

Then “Oh stuff it I didn’t really want to be a nun anyway ..” and she walks back down the mountain again.

When it comes to stopping swearing I think its a losing fight … like it cor not.

Joking!

Actually I see both sides here.

Coarse or sailor-like language is so commonly used and so inescapable these days that anyone unaware of it really must have been living in a cave. Plus I really don’t think people have a right NOT to be offended or to have everything so nanny-sanitised it becomes meaningless pap devoid of passion or strength. Wowsers give me .. well the same sort of thing dysentery does!

Quite frankly, those who are over-fussed by & hyper-sensitive to swearing are (often if not always) hypocritical neurotics who can take a long walk off a short jetty as far as I’m concerned!

(Refer to Mary Whitehouse {spelling?} in the UK around the 70’s~80’s? for example & the superb “Goodies” send-up of her.)

Euphemisms (eg. frak, gosh-durn, etc ..) can be handy even creative & kinda fun but yes, they are – as someone else noted here – weasel words hiding what we really think and pulling punches. Lets call our spades spades folks!

On the Other Hand though :

Yes, it _is_ Phil’s blog – he does have the right to set his rules for it& be respected. What Phil says & wants for his own blog goes & I’ve no argument with that. By and large he does an excellent job with this site.

Moreover excessive rudeness and obscenity is neither pretty nor clever nor good at all. Respect and consideration for people is not just making everything more pleasant for everyone but it also makes your point much more effective into the bargain. Name calling and invective can entertain sometimes if done well – it very rarely if ever persuades or convinces.

Plus we’ve got the whole classroom use point.

Its balancing act & a tricky one which I reckon the BA generally gets pretty much right.

I try to abide by the BA’s rules here.
I try to be respectful and polite.
I may not always succeed ..
… But I *do* try.

I even make sure I use ‘unaided eye’ rather than naked eye for telescope /binoc_less astronomy!

NB. One of the many perils of a net-nanny system is that for using ‘that one word that refers to an unclothed state + eye’ many astronomy sites apparently get blocked! Truly.