Please add ableist words to the automatic filter

[ParisOnWheels]

@MNHQ please can you add ableist terms to the automatic filter? It’s brilliant that you’ve added racist ones but it’s disheartening as a disabled person to seeing ableist terms such as crippling used.

Hello there @ParisOnWheels thanks very much for raising this - we'll have a think about what we can do.

Unless it’s one of the really obvious ones used then a lot depends on context which is where the issue would come in.

I know plenty of people with major pain issues who describe their own pain as crippling and in that context it wouldn’t be an issue surely?

I think a blanket filter would only work for words that are unmitigatingly offensive, such as the R or S words, and similar. Things like "cripple" can of course be pejorative, but in the majority of contexts i don't think it is an ableist term. Describing something like debt or anxiety as crippling wouldn't be offensive to the majority of disabled people (myself included) and an automatic filter would just catch a lot of completely innocuous posts.

I've noticed a lot of people on here use 'monging out' (and claim it's fine when challenged ). Would love to see that go.

it’s disheartening as a disabled person to seeing ableist terms such as crippling used.

There is an issue around ableism but I don’t have an issue around the word “crippling” per se. As PPs have pointed out, it has many benign uses.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

I've noticed a lot of people on here use 'monging out' (and claim it's fine when challenged ). Would love to see that go.

Yes, absolutely. No legitimate reason to be using that one.

Also “cretin”.

Absolutely @JesusInTheCabbageVan, i pulled a poster up on that recently and they insisted it was completely acceptable! Credit to MNHQ, they did delete the comment once I'd reported it, but a filter for words like that would definitely be a good thing.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan MNHQ will delete that term. The poster should get a warning I think seeing as FWR have that system.

WTF is wrong with crippling?

I completely agree that some of it would be subjective, possibly context dependent too.

But I think it’s a good think to discuss and if we could lessen the ableist language on here it would make it a more pleasant space. Getting rid of retard, fucktard, mong and cretin would be huge. Spastic possibly, 99 times out of 100 it’s an insult but my diagnosis is spastic diplegia due to CP, so occasionally it’s not. I’d also like to see window licker and variants gone too but probably took much for a filter.

Getting rid of retard, fucktard, mong and cretin would be huge.

Absolutely.

Spastic possibly, 99 times out of 100 it’s an insult but my diagnosis is spastic diplegia due to CP, so occasionally it’s not

It’s tricky isn’t it? I suffer a degree of spasticity secondary to a spinal condition. I know perfectly well most uses of that word will be abusive or perjorative, but just occasionally someone will want to have a proper discussion about the medical term. Or the Ian Dury song.

I think spastic would be hard to ban due to it being a legitimate diagnosis and the last thing we would want to do is make it hard for someone to ask for support because they can’t use the word. Shortening it as is too often do to use as an insult would very much be on the banned list of words in my eyes

I think some words have double meanings, fit for instance, a debt can cripple you.
Mong, retard, fucktard, spaz and so on don't
But mn hq are good at deleting.

@Samcro

I think some words have double meanings, fit for instance, a debt can cripple you. Mong, retard, fucktard, spaz and so on don't But mn hq are good at deleting.

"Retard" does as it means "to slow". It isn't in common usage though (I remember my dad using it in the context of, I think, a car engine)

I am sure people can just put ..goes slow😀

It's used in the context of engine timing. As in 'retard the timing' but there aren't that many cars you can do that on these days as it's all electrical. So filtering for it probably wouldn't be much of a problem.

Then they can use another word for "crippling debt" too. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was only pointing out that it does have another meaning. Possibly the original one. It leads onto things like "fire retardant" etc.

Anyway, Posts would only get hidden and then reinstated anyway (as shown by the now fixed "snigger" problem)

I know there is an (AED) tablet with the word "retard" in it and I've used it on related threads but obviously only for that.

@ParisOnWheels please can you explain the "crippling" being offensive? I genuinely have never heard of this.

Gah. Posted too soon. I can see that calling someone a cripple as an insult is unacceptable but I can't see that the word "crippling" used in the context eg debt as PP is offensive?

I certainly don't find it so, so would be interested to know why you think so?

@OhFuckOffWithTheBubbleBollocks

I know there is an (AED) tablet with the word "retard" in it and I've used it on related threads but obviously only for that.

@ParisOnWheels please can you explain the "crippling" being offensive? I genuinely have never heard of this.

Dh,s epilepsy tablets used to be called tegretol retard, now they are called slow release.

What does the auto filter do, just flag posts up to HQ? If so I don't think there is a problem with including the word retard. You will get some posts flagged up which are benign (discussing French trains?) and some medications produced in non-English speaking countries, the delayed formulation is labelled retard. But these are surely rare uses of the word. Flame retardant is possibly one which might come up more often. I know there is/was a poster who used to go on about flame retardants in furniture including children's pushchairs, cot mattresses and car seats.