<a little tentative making my first post a suggested change to the site but (with all due respect) here goes...>
As with any site that allows users to post comments etc. the Halfbakery suffers from rants and trolls. Trolls will probably always be a problem, but rants I believe could be somewhat undermined by careful choice of usernames.

What I suggest is that we use a similar method to those swearing filters some software comes with. With these there is a large text file of all banned words, which are checked against words the user enters, replacing swearing with ***** perhaps. But instead of swearing in the Halfbakery version of this file, we add as many inherently daft-sounding words as possible. Possible examples: wang, shampoo, trellis, bong, cheesemonger, knob, Spam and so on.

When a user creates an account, they are required to use only these words, *otherwise* non-stupid parts of their username are automatically replaced by words in this file. Now, when this happens:

john_smith: This is not a rant, BUT the REAL problem with the IRISH is….(rant rant rant)
steven_jones:How can you say that!!! You are so STUPID….

it would become:

large_donkey_wang: This is not a rant, BUT the REAL problem with the IRISH is….

and hopefully that would be the end of that thread because who could in any seriousness argue with someone called “large_donkey_wang”?

</a little tentative making my first post a suggested change to the site but (with all due) respect here goes...>
-- custardlove, Aug 13 2003

Based on thumbwax's observation in this diatribe http://www.halfbake...o-Lenient_20Phrases
[custardlove, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Wang http://www.penny-ar...te=2000-09-22&res=l
Reminds me of this comic strip [jivetalkinrobot, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Amid the clever and amusing nics on this site, there is a large number of very, *very* stupid usernames, too.
<manages to stop self casting first stone>
-- my face your, Aug 13 2003


I thought this was going to be that if we were all called Bottomsworth-Smythe our sensibilities would be raised to the extent that ranting would be far below us.
-- nichpo, Aug 13 2003


// could in any seriousness argue with someone called “large_donkey_wang” //

I once corresponded via letter for several years, and had many illuminating discussions with large_donkey_wang on topics such as syndicalist fundamentalism in post-industrialized nations corroborated by neo-socialist dogma, theories of relativistic gravitation in quantum flux spacetime, and fluid dynamics in graviton-induced plasma fields.

large_donkey_wang is one of the world's brightest and most renowned critical thinkers of this century. You should read his auto-biography, titled "large_donkey_wang: Because It's There."
-- DeathNinja, Aug 13 2003


Not to mention his motivational seminars "The large_donkey_wang That Could."
-- Detly, Aug 13 2003



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