Society of Vertebrate Paleontology forbid the word "bone" during online conference

boing
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Obligatory

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Oh nice. The list is editable by the public. Heh. Wonderful. What could go wrong?

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Honestly, what sort of forum for discussion would feel the need to ban random inoffensive words. My eyes are moist at the very suggestion!

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Well, I hope that the ornithology conference I’m attending next week doesn’t use that software. How will I discuss my research on boobies, or that of my colleagues involving tits?

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I expect “iffy” and “lies” were banned on the grounds that discussion among rivals could lead to accusations that their research was “iffy” or outright “lies” and they wanted more constructive criticism. No idea about “flange” though.

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I’m not sure that constructive criticism is engendered by silly rules.

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Oh agreed. I think word filtering is a stupid way to automate moderation. I’m just trying to guess at the motivation for the banned words.

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Maybe the ST is silent in iffy?

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12 years old boys and up, waaaaaay up! I started this video at the most relevant moment…

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I expected the story to be more like the old bromide “eskimos have no word for snow” because they have so many different ones for different kinds… I.e. don’t say “bone” when your paper probably needs to be much more specific.

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“Scunthorpe Problem”

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Try saying that at a yogurt factory and see how far you get!

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Flange is used as a slang term for vagina in Britain.

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Is ‘fucktard’ on the banned list? How could a social criticism conference function without it?

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or for a slightly more british take

apologies for the quality.

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Let me take this opportunity to encourage all these paleontologists to switch to studying arthropods, mollusks, or worms. No bones to talk about and so much more diversity. Come on in the water’s fine

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Wankie is an option now that is renamed Hwange…perhaps to get around this problem?

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My daughter’s biology teacher was called Mr Wankie. Fuck knows why he decided to teach high schoolers, but there you go.

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Insert Jeffrey Toobin joke here.