Re: Asterisks

[Peter Clinch]

Ian Scott wrote:
> Can someone please tell me why a lot of
> people here tend to replace letters of the
> alphabet with asterisks in such words as
> "h*lm*ts" (helmets), "H*lfo***" (Halfords)
> and so on.
>
> By doing this you are stopping my kill
> filter from working. I have a kill-filter
> on the word "helmets" as I don't want to
> read about them, but the replacement of some
> letters by asterisks mean they get through
> anyway!

Then you should've seen the whole thread dedicated to answering that
very question, and of course going off on the usual mind-numbing
tangents as well.

It's a joke. Just as The Sun doesn't like to say Rude Words and adds in
asterisks over vowels, so it's done here to make a joke that "helmet" is
a bit of a rude word because it inspires so much boring text.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[davek]

Peter Clinch wrote:
> It's a joke. Just as The Sun doesn't like to say Rude Words and adds in
> asterisks over vowels

That's why I read the Guardian.

d.

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

Peter Clinch <[email protected]> writes:
>
> It's a joke. Just as The Sun doesn't like to say Rude Words and adds
> in asterisks over vowels, so it's done here to make a joke that
> "helmet" is a bit of a rude word because it inspires so much boring
> text.

Seen on Page 3: the word "t*ts"

A

 

[Ian Smith]

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004, Peter Clinch <[email protected]> wrote:

> It's a joke. Just as The Sun doesn't like to say Rude Words and adds in
> asterisks over vowels, so it's done here to make a joke that "helmet" is
> a bit of a rude word because it inspires so much boring text.

On teh aquaria groups it has been traditional to refer to a pl*c or
pl*co when posting about a plec (short for plecostomus - a sort of
sucker-mouth catfish popular for the reason taht it eats algae growing
on teh fishtank glass, thus assisting in keeping it clean). This is
because they are hardy and long-lived, but the one sure way of causing
one to sicken and die is to name it on usenet.

My pl*cs never wear helmets (see - it is on topic).

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

 

[Dave Larrington]

Ian Smith wrote:

> On teh aquaria groups it has been traditional to refer to a pl*c or
> pl*co when posting about a plec (short for plecostomus - a sort of
> sucker-mouth catfish popular for the reason taht it eats algae growing
> on teh fishtank glass, thus assisting in keeping it clean). This is
> because they are hardy and long-lived, but the one sure way of causing
> one to sicken and die is to name it on usenet.

So, a bit like p+nct+r+ then...

--

Dave Larrington
Using + coz * Does Things with OE-Quotefix

 

[David E. Belcher]

Peter Clinch <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

> It's a joke. Just as The Sun doesn't like to say Rude Words and adds in
> asterisks over vowels, so it's done here to make a joke that "helmet" is
> a bit of a rude word because it inspires so much boring text.

Well, it wouldn't do to print rude words in The Sun. Might lower the
tone, y'know ;-)

David E. Belcher

 

[Zog The Undeniable]

Ian Smith wrote:
>
> On teh aquaria groups it has been traditional to refer to a pl*c or
> pl*co when posting about a plec (short for plecostomus - a sort of
> sucker-mouth catfish popular for the reason taht it eats algae growing
> on teh fishtank glass, thus assisting in keeping it clean). This is
> because they are hardy and long-lived, but the one sure way of causing
> one to sicken and die is to name it on usenet.

On Slashdot and elsewhere, <ahem> "adult content" is generally referred
to as pr0n. It's a weird combination of l33t-speak [1] and rude-word
filter evading.

[1] http://www.solcon.nl/mwijers/l33t.htm (I know the guy who originally
coded this, but it's since been mirrored all over the net).
Incidentally "teh" is l33t-speak...