Re: username dictionaries

Thanks everyone for the enlightening posts.  Sounds like human approval =
is ultimately the only workable solution.  We could allow any username =
and then check them after the fact when time permits and then revoke or =
change them.

Does the same (dictionaries) go for in-game chat?  I know that AA =
changes profanity to asterisks but only if it exactly spelt.  I'm =
guessing this is just lip-service to trying to show some effort to =
thwart it to keep parents happy?  You'll never stop "kampers" from using =
"tactics" :-)

Cheers,
Brett

----- Original Message -----=20
From: "Todd Showalter" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: [GD-Consoles] username dictionaries


> On Tue, 27 May 2003 18:21:27 +0800
> "Research \(GameBrains\)" <[email protected]> wrote:
>=20
> > I'm trying to find a dictionary of vulgar, profane and obscene
> > usernames so that we can prevent users from signing up for an
> > account using one.  This must be a solved problem but I can't
> > seem to find any resources for this.  I thought perhaps the
> > console people that hang out in this forum might be more likely
> > to know something about this?
>=20
>     If by "solved problem" you mean "quagmire of madness in which
> many a good programmer has been lost", or perhaps "a solved problem
> the same way natural language parsing is a solved problem", then
> yes.  You'll get to something that handles some of the trivial stuff
> quite quickly, but you'll never get it all.
>=20
>     It's the strong ai problem, and you've got people working
> against you trying to see what they can slip by your validator.  Not
> only that, but you have people who's legitimate names may well
> contain substrings that match against your "bad word" dictionary
> (Sexton, Crapper...).  The best you can hope for is to flag
> suspicious names for later evaluation by a human.
>=20
>     It gets that much worse if you have to internationalize the
> thing; "shite" (shitay) is the imperative form of "suru" ("to do") in
> Japanese, and "phuque" is French for "sea lion" or "seal".  Every
> language in the world used for human discourse has its fair share of
> the vulgar, the profane and the obscene, and in many cases there's
> bad phonetic crosstalk with "good" words in other languages.
>=20
>     You also have the problem that if you do this kind of filtering,
> you've legally taken on a policy, which may have wider implications
> than you think.  For example, if you're filtering what people say
> in the slightest way (even just username validation), in some of the
> more litigious parts of the world you might find that opened you up
> to liability if some legal dispute (harassment?  slander?  mp3
> trading?) came up between some of your users, or between one of your
> users and the outside world.
>=20
>     Fundamentally, however, your biggest problem is your users;  =
Anyone
> who was going to try to use a "bad word" as their user name is going
> to try to do the same within whatever limits your system imposes.  =
You'll
> wind up with standard h4x0r speak, rude combinations of allowed words
> (how do you plan on blocking something like "HamsterStuffer" or
> "ManPole" or...?), and words that you won't know are offensive until =
you
> get mail from the offended.  Do you really think you can easily =
assemble
> a dictionary of all the racial slurs in the world?
>=20
>     If you really must filter user names, you're going to need a =
person
> to do it, and you're probably going to want a tool that deals with =
batches
> of names and categorizes them based on suspiciousness.  You'll still =
have
> lots of misses, the human reviewer will make mistakes and be subject =
to
> sliding standards based on their mood, but that's about the best you
> can hope for.
>=20
>     Or you could just assign a name, or give them whatever name you =
find
> on the billing address.  Most users will hate that, though.
>=20
>     If it's for kids, and you really, really want to sand off all the
> corners, you could always make the user name something like "adjective
> adjective noun", and you supply the lists of from which to pick in
> clickable form.  That solves the profanity problem (unless people can
> chat in-game, in which case you're screwed anyways...), at the expense
> of making initial name selection a trying experience for the user:
>=20
>     "Sorry, user name 'happy fluffy bunny' is already in use.  Sorry, =
user
> name 'fluffy happy bunny' is already in use.  Sorry, user name...".
>=20
> Todd.
>=20
> --=20
>   Todd Showalter
>   [email protected]
>=20
>=20
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