The following is an article I have written in another forum http://www.diandian.net In the last year or so, I have been involved in helping them correct their student essays. One day I found every s_e_x was changed to ***, so I wrote the following essay in protest. Although two other teachers in that forum supported my position, the administration ignored the request. As an administrator of the Rainlane BBS, I know how easily this can be done. I suspect it is a matter of will, not a matter of difficulty.
A few minutes ago, I found the word s*e*x I used in one of my posts was changed to a string of Chinese characters. I went back to diandian net, dug up my old post and post it below. You will see how ridiculous the situation is. I can understand the automatic censorship of things such as T-suare and six + four as a date--since that will get you into trouble, but I don't see why, in this day and age, s_e_x should be banned. Anyway, read my article below and you will see my reasoning.
------------------------------------------------------------
Appended: Oops, forgot to mention that in your case, s_e_x is replaced by 快乐英语，梦想皆有神助. The examples I wrote are perfectly legitimate academic essays. But under your irrational censorship, they become ridiculous.
Reprinted from the dian-dian net:
点点的管理员请进：
请你把 s_e_x 一词从 “不可用，自动删除” 的列表上除去。 这字在学述讨论上常有出现。 见下面例子
Can you remove the word s.e.x. from the list of censored words in your BBS? Should take you no more than 30 seconds to do. It is pretty silly, in this day and age, to consider that word as being "dirty" and be censored. Besides, having this word censored will make essays look pretty silly.
Re: message 4 at : http://www.diandian.net/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=110&id=22628&star=1#186638
Let me show you how silly it is by writing a very short paragraph: (Look how ridiculous it is when the word s_e_x is automatically replaced by *** by the forum administrative watchdog function.)
Should the sex of babies be pre-selected?
Advances in medicine make it possible to correctly identify the sex of babies before they are born. Biochemical techniques enable parents to pre-select the sex of their children. Should this be encouraged?
In some countries, there are definitely preferences for one sex over the other. In male dominant countries, boys are preferred. Would pre-selecting the sex of babes lead to an imbalance of the population in terms of sex?
II: Sex, sex, sex. Is that all there is in the minds of teenage boy? This is one question that many sociologists often ask. Some psychologists claim that for the average male , the idea of sex comes up every five minutes.
III: Abstract: By using the latest bioengineering techniques, our experiment on the sex change of fish was a success. This paper details the method use in the manipulation of sex genes in animals; how sex can be pre-determined in mammal babies and how this sex pre-selection is going to influence the social structure of humans.
Now, let's check how many s.e.x. have been changed to ***. Don't you think that is silly? I don't think so. I don't think it is silly, I think it is downright ridiculous
--
The following is a follow up post to the one quoted above.
The note above was posted on 2004-12-05 00:42, almost 6 months ago.
Yesterday I was reading someone's essay (for revision) when I came across the *** again. This time, I was not annoyed, but infuriated. However can one in this day and age consider the word S.E.X. as a dirty word? Someone definitely has very little understanding of English. I am sorry I have to be rude. I find this totally ridiculous.
When I was yound, I find the Hong KOng society extremely hypocritical when it comes to the attitude of s.e.x. Newspapers would have detail account of a s.e.x.-crime, and many of those so call "solid citizen" , "public figures", "champions of morality" often frequents the dancing halls and have questionable female company. Yet, any slightest mention of the word s.e.x. by teenagers and in schools are jumped on as being extremely immoral. Today, we find the same thing in China. The rich and the powerful have "mistresses by contracts 包二奶" and "小姐s" are everywhere. So why put on this farce of banning very common and useful words such as s.e.x.? I am flabbergasted.
