June 15, 2004

  • ~~Xanga and the Seven Dirty Words~~


     


    Xanga has a quirky policy about the acceptability of usernames.  First off, not all are acceptable!  You just might go to register a username and get one of a few responses:


     


    Your username must be at least three (3) characters long.


     


    Username can only contain characters 0-9, a-z, A-Z, or _


     


    Username is invalid.


     


    The first two are well-defined rules, both instructive and easy to comply with.  That is, once you understand the limits of either of these rules, you’d have to be an idiot to try or retry establishing, for instance, a 2-letter username (‘Me’) or one that looked like ‘~~!!!me!!!~~’ .  The key is that once you understand the rule, you know beforehand what’s acceptable and what’s not.


     


    But the third response, ‘Username is invalid.’, is not a rule at all.  It is merely a report of  what appears to be an attempted violation of some rule.  But what rule might that be?  How can we be sure beforehand what is valid and invalid?


     


    It appears that ‘Username is invalid.’  occurs in at least two instances: 1) usernames with the string ‘xanga’ in it (for example, ‘xangaboy’ or ‘xangagirl are currently invalid—although some others like ‘XangaGina’ and ‘xangaholic’ are ok!), and 2) some so-called ‘dirty words’. 


     


    We’ll get back to the ‘xanga’ exceptions in a moment. But first…


     


    On to dirty words.  We all know what those are, don’t we?  Or do we?  (And even if we assume we do, we’ll surely still find a broad difference of opinion amongst us about their acceptability.)  So is the Xanga rule: ‘No dirty (i.e., offensive) names allowed.’  ??  Let’s assume it is.  Then surely we might expect the infamous ‘Seven Dirty Words’ restricted by the FCC on TV and radio to find disfavor here also:


     


    1) shit


    2) piss


    3) fuck


    4) cunt


    5) cocksucker


    6) motherfucker


    7) tits


     


    Guess again.  Of these seven, only ‘cocksucker’ is disallowed on Xanga.  The other six are valid usernames (and I have one of them).  Funny thing is, though, many (though not all) of the variants on some of these are disallowed!  Hence, ‘motherfucker’ is ok, but ‘uglymotherfucker’ is not.  ‘fuck’ is ok, but ‘dumbfuck’ is not, and so on.  Although it appears that all variants of ‘shit’, ‘piss’, and ‘tits’ are currently allowed.


     


    So, what do we know so far?  That Xanga doesn’t ban the ‘Seven Dirty Words’ per se (only one of them), but it does ban some variants, and some that are probably less generally offensive than the root word, i.e., ‘dumbfuck’ generally being considered less offensive than a simple ‘fuck’.  It is very hard to discern a rule here!  But here is what I speculate:


     


    1)  Sometime early in 2001, Xanga ‘grandfathered in a few ‘dirty word’ accounts that existed prior to making certain usernames (and variants) invalid (e.g., ‘fuck’, est. 12/28/2000), but  banned all subsequent unclaimed names and variants of such thereafter until...


     


    2) October 2003.  During the month of October 2003, it appears that many then currently banned names became allowable!  Yes, October 2003 was The Great Diaspora of Foulness in Xanga. Heh  Lots of ‘fuck’ names (e.g., ‘motherfucker’) , ‘bitch’ names (‘bitch’ itself), even ‘xanga’ names (‘XangaGina’ and ‘xangaholic’ mentioned above) were claimed.  But if you personally didn’t get yours then, forget it.  It appears that the door has since again been slammed.


     


    So today we have certain restrictions on naming with lots and lots of exceptions.  The question is: Why was October 2003 so special?  Why were so many exceptions then allowed that had been prior and have since been banned?


     


    Enough speculation for me (though I encourage you to do so in comments).  Here’s two lists.  Which, if either, do you find more offensive?


     


    Some non-existent and currently disallowed Xanga Usernames  ("Username is invalid.")


     


    orgasm


    orgasmic


    penis


    xangamom


    blogbitch


    bastard


    pussy


    shitfuck


    cumfuck


    bitchwhip


    littlecunt


    tightpussy


    pussycats


    cocksucker


    uglymotherfucker


    dumbfuck


     


    Some perfectly good existing Xanga Usernames


     


    piss


    shit


    fuck


    cunt


    cunt_rag


    cum_guzzler


    coitus


    bitch


    fuck_off_bitch


    shitandshutup


    cummonster


    pussycat


    tits


    cock


    motherfucker


    goddamn


     


    What’s that story about Pandora’s Box?!


     


    Okay.  So how’s this for a rule:


     


     ‘pussy’ is offensive—nonexistent and disallowed,


     ‘pussycat’ is apparently fine and allowed (October 18 2003),


     ‘pussycats’ is now offensive—and disallowed!  


     


    Dirty, dirty pussycats!

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