

From ‘Preggers’ to ‘Pizzle’: Android’s Bizarre List of Banned Words - denzil_correa
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/12/banned-android-words/

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pervycreeper
>These are just a few examples from an obsessive, and often baffling list of
more than 1,400 English words that Google has quietly deemed inappropriate for
Android users.

What a fatuous line of reasoning. A simpler explanation would be that those
are words that one would be less likely to want to type accidentally in, say,
a text message, because of their potential for causing misunderstanding or
embarrassment. The idea that they would want to bowdlerize a user's text input
to advance a vague political agenda is absurd and resembles the worst kind of
paranoid conspiracy theory.

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jonchristian
I wrote the piece, and I strongly agree with you. To clarify:

1) I see no conspiracy here, just a fascinatingly broad definition of
"offensive" 2) I do think a togglable filter is a good feature 3) But this
list is still weird. "LSAT"? "Cuprammonium"? "Dominatrices" but not
"dominatrix"? I think a sloppy intern might have gotten a little heavy-handed.
The word lists for other languages (also available) ban far fewer words.

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herbig
A togglable filter is a feature of the app. How come the article makes no
mention of this?

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sli
It does.

> The filter can be disabled in the Google Keyboard settings, which makes all
> words both swipeable and available for autocomplete.

Unless you meant the article makes no mention of it specifically as a
_feature,_ which it does not.

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millzlane
I wonder if this is why I can't type the word "Yo". Not only can't I type it.
But if I select it as the word I want, it's not added to the dictionary. But
if I type in "lmnop" and select it, it's added to the dictionary. I have even
added "Yo" to my personal dictionary and it still suggest to. Sadly, I have
given up trying.

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__pThrow
I do have that issue with Google keyboard, there are words I want to add, but
I don't even get the suggestion from the keyboard to add the app.

I wish there was an official tutorial somewhere.

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herbig
There's a "Block offensive words" option that is checked on by default.

Problem solved.

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KirinDave
I read this thinking it was incredibly good tech satire. For a moment, I had
hope.

Then I realized that there is a variant of Poe's Law for technology. Only 45
minutes of staring at sciencedog galleries on imgur calmed me down.

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jbrooksuk
Sensible choice really.

