To cuss or not to cuss — that is the question [Ask dotTechies]
December 4, 2012 46
Email article | Print article 
I will be completely upfront with everyone — I absolutely love cussing (using swear/curse words). I don’t know why; I just do. (My wife does not appreciate this fine quality of mine.) You may have noticed I sometimes (more regularly lately, it seems) cuss in my articles. Personally I have no issue with cussing, as long as it isn’t overly excessive (which I don’t think I have been), aside from the Best Buy article. However, I have received a few e-mails from concerned dotTechies asking me to tone it down. Instead of listening to just a few, I’d like to throw it out to a popular vote — should cussing be allowed in dotTech articles? Cast your vote below and be sure to leave a comment!
You don’t need to. Your articles and your prestige are enough reason to keep visiting and reading your site and articles. Keep it up!
I have known this site for a very long time. DotTech means quality and honest opinions. If something deserves tough words, they should be said aloud.
I never noticed your cussing—it must be in the type of categories I’m not subscribed to…:-)….
Avoid terms like “suboptimal” when four letters are enough! :)
I’ve never really noticed your cussing either. But then again I also cuss. However, only done when and where appropriate. I voted for choice #2.
I swear more than I should and have, lately, been trying to find alternative expressions. I find my vocabulary is increasing…I’m not bothered by it but agree with #1.
I do get annoyed when I’m in public and forced to listen to ‘f-this, f-that’. The little bit I’ve seen on dottech seems to be appropriate and humorous, however.
I am disgusted and revulsed by words like “BSOD”, “Ballmer” and “defrag”.
Seriously, you don’t see ZDNet using cusswords, even though their articles are plein de merde (pardon my french).
I’m an American ex-pat living in Europe and I find that it’s almost exclusively prudish Amercians who whine about this issue. “Naughty” words are part of life in other cultures, or at least the limits are much broader. If I were you, I’d just let them whine on.
Sometimes it just takes a good old four letter word to drive home the point.The Best Buy article would not have done that without the well placed profanity
So,fuck on dude!!.
So just who was at the fekking a_ _ who decided which words were naughty and which words nice, and who was it that placed the crown on their head?
I like your articles a lot, haven’t noticed cussing –though I agree with other comment that when I hear f-this or f-that it is annoying –adolescent. Might be worth wondering what you get out of it…
I agree with the classic comment by Spencer Kimball: “Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly.”
It’s not a matter of being prudish; it’s a matter of taking the time to think and choose words well. That’s why you’re a writer, Ashraf.
By the way, it will be interesting to see the results of the survey, as an example of “vote splitting.” There are four ways to vote “No,” and one way to vote “Absolutely yes.”
Mark Twain said “In times of stress,profanity provides a realease denied even to prayer” These are stressful times…..
The survey structure is bogus. You’ve already determined the result you want. FOAD
I just looked up FOAD…That’s one we can certainly do without…!!!
I like to cuss. Used appropriately and with restraint, it can really serve to drive a point home.
As Lenny Bruce pointed out: If you can’t say “Fuck” you can’t say, “Fuck the government.”
Or, for a more venerable source to support the occasional expletive, none other than Bill Shakespeare said:
It comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him.
@Janet: Formation Ouverte À Distance ??
When somebody resorts to swearing to get their point across, I usually attribute that to a lack of intelligence. Any moron can throw in a few four-letter words.
I agree with Bruce Fraser and Spencer Kimball. IMO cursing and using profanity indicates difficulty with expressing thoughts normally. Sort of like throwing rocks when you’re mad at someone. I use a Firefox addon called Web Page Fixer +, which has an option to replace swear words with neutral ones. So it’s less unpleasant and somewhat funny to read an article that looks like “And so, *&^*&*, go and *&%)^* yourself.” In the end, the indication that cursing and swearing is within an author’s normal, everyday capacity reduces that person’s credibility with me. I’d rather see the author’s constructive ideas on the subject matter, not the fact that he/she can’t express thoughts in normal language.
@Ashraf:
I voted for #2. But I think you should consider your audience. Not all of them are crinkley old gits like me. Some of the visitors to dotTech.org may be quite young.
Imagine your virtual (hope to be realised one day) son or daughter aged 7 or 8 years old and use language that you wouldn’t mind him/her seeing/hearing.
The main thing is that you continue to give us your true reactions to the subjects of your articles. “More power to your elbow!”
Pesonally I’m fairly broadminded, but I do object to the abreviation in comment #15 from the so-called “Concerned Mom of 5″.
@jayesstee:Point made. Where is the line drawn? If the article is littered with filth, it will engender comments rooted in that same contaminated soil. Birds/feather. YSIC.
I honestly haven’t seen cussing on dottech apart from the “F” word on the best buy article, but then again i don’t consider a lot of words cussing. I don’t mind cussing, but like others have been posting, there is a fine line between what dottech is about and cussing doesn’t really seem to fit in. I’ve been a dottechie for a while and there has always been this high class and quality work in your article which could just get damaged by inserting cuss words.
I don’t think any articles have been excessive in profanity, and where it has been used seems perfectly reasonable. If the articles were eff this, eff that, eff the other then yeah, I could see why people would have an issue with it.
But they’re not, so I don’t see what the dealio is :)
Firstly, thank you Ashraf for putting the question out into the open.
I feel that young use the internet and old alike the poster should be mindful that there is no justification for using cuss / swear words in any site where the age group of potential readers is so wide.
DotTech, including the author or writer of any article should always keep that in mind.
Bottom line do we really have to us cuss / swear words??