Bias Is A Four Letter Word
Possibly Ed’s rant against overusage of “bias” has escaped the attention of some commenters. “Bias” is no longer a welcome word on TTAC. Usage can result in permanent banning. I am inclined to put the word “bias” on our bad word list. The only thing that keeps me from doing so is the fact that the banning robot is stupid and will also kill comments that contain, “bias-ply tires”, sundry “phobias”, “suburbias” etc. Don’t make me wipe out whole suburbias.
While on the topic of banning:
“Many forum and wiki administrators dislike DEAs because they obfuscate the identity of the members and make maintaining member control difficult. As an example, trolls, vandals and other users that may have been banned may use throwaway e-mail addresses to get around attempts to ban them.”
And therefore, we have banned a long list of DEA mailhosts.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Yawn. It's all about perception.
If the primary goal is to elevate the quality of the comments, banning one word isn't going to have much impact. The critics will find other ways of getting their points across and you end up looking thin-skinned and unjournalistic. Real journalists don't ban words.
How about bi ass? Is that ok?
Start banning words, next thing you'll be banning phrases. Pretty soon, the odd ban of an entire SENTENCE will occur. After that, sooner or later an entire PARAGRAPH will become ban-fodder. Eventually, entire BOOKS will be verboten.... I kid because I care. Look either we believe that the freedom of the internet is a good thing despite the odd boorish and unpleasant commenter who doesn't comprehend the difference between horse-shyte and shinola...and we let it be...OR, we don't. I fall into the former category. Let the words of my tribe FLOW FREE, unfettered and uncensored.