Late this week here at ProBlogger guest blogger Justin Dupre explored the topic of swearing on blogs in his post – Dropping The F-Bomb: Blogging with Naughty Words. The response to his post was a great discussion with a variety of opinions expressed.
I thought a followup poll might be in order with the question being:
To give you a taste for the opinions of others on the topic of swearing on a blog here are a few comments from the ProBlogger community on the topic taken from the comments on Justin’s post.
Reader Opinion
Rhys – “What about cultural differences? Point I’m referencing is when a certain a-list blogger began a post with a C-Word. Rightfully, a LOT of bloggers were offended, but being British where that word is not horrendously shocking, I wasn’t. However, when a blogger used a swear (rhymes with banker), I was offended as it’s quite a powerful word for Brits! I’ve seen it used on things like the Simpsons and WWE Wrestling, but nobody seems to bat an eyelid. But like your said, it’s about knowing your audience.”
Mike Gray – “I refuse to allow any kind of salty language from myself or from commenters. To me, if there are readers that are sensitive to that kind of thing, there’s just no good reason for me to alienate them. Not to mention, I’d like my blog to be a place where parents would feel secure in letting their kids visit.”
Dan Cole – “I think you also have to consider your future. What happens if your future employer looks at your website and see you writing fire truck all over the place. Is it something you really want to live with the rest of your life?”
mgroves – “It’s my experience in general that what cursing can certainly add emphasis if used properly, that it’s instead overused to the point of being a crutch or substitute for creativity. This is also the case for music, books, movies, etc, not just blogging. Use it sparingly, so that when you *do* use it, it will be much more significant.”
aaron – “I would say to use the best form of communication you can find. sometimes a good Fbomb is the only way to explain something. don’t just drop a bomb for the sake of dropping a bomb…articulate.”
Mike Panic – “There is a small staff of people who write for my blog and they have all asked where I stand on cursing in their writing. My statement is something like, I have no problem with it if the cussin’ fits the article, but if it’s cussin’ for the sake of cussin’ it is pointless. I read a how-to-blog article 2+ years ago, maybe on Lifehacker, it said something to the effect of – hold nothing back, apologize for nothing, write true and you will be happy and someone will read it, somewhere.”
There are over 100 comments on the thread – a great read in all.
My own opinion on swearing on blogs:
A few random and personal thoughts:
- This may surprise some but to me it’s not the biggest turn off to read a blog that uses some swearing. I’m not offended by too many words although there are one or two that push my buttons. I’m more offended by other blogger behavior than a few four letter words – although it gets annoying when a blogger does it too often (read on).
- As Rhys pointed out above there are often cultural considerations and words that have push my buttons are a quite normal part of the language of others. This is one reason that leads a lot of bloggers to be a little more conservative on the choice of whether to swear or not.
- Like many of the commenters on the previous post – I think swearing isn’t something that I like to see for the sake of it – but the occasional one in context to make a point and if it’s in the authentic voice of the blogger doesn’t phase me.
- Personally I don’t do swear on my blog (I can’t remember doing it anyway). For me it’s partly about blogging in an authentic voice (I rarely swear in normal life and when I do it’s when I’m pretty worked up. As I don’t generally blog when ‘worked up’ I don’t tend to swear).
- When it comes to swearing in comments on my blogs – I have allowed it in moderation when I feel it’s made with a point – however I also choose to make my blogs a place where all ages can participate and moderate some comments based upon language. I also find that the spam filters I use seems to kill off some comments based upon language also.
- I think if you’re writing a blog that is about raising your own profile or on some sort of business level then you probably should be even more careful. To me it’s like having any business – I’ve never been greeted in a restaurant or retail outlet with strong language, it wouldn’t make good business sense (in 99% of cases).
- The language you use on a blog either adds to or takes away from the brand you’re building. A blogger wanting to build a blog up needs to look at their objectives and ask themselves whether swearing takes them closer to the objectives or not. I have met bloggers who would argue both ways on this point.
They are just some of my initial thoughts on the topic but this post is more about you and what you think. Vote in the poll above and let us know why you answered the way that you did in comments below.
I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone votes.
Swearing is a touchy subject, I’m glad you have come out into the open with your own view on it. I personally feel that curse words are important to our society because they are strong and convey very strong emotions in order for others to understand. I do not support heavy use of cursing and do not swear in my own blog. I’m also interested on how everyone votes too.
I wish you’d defined ‘swear’ a little more. I will occasionally use the word ‘damn’ for emphasis, but given that some parents I know no longer consider this an ‘adult’ word, I’m not sure if that’s ‘Never’ or ‘Occasionally’.
Okay, now I feel like a Brit with all my racy quotes … :>
All things being equal, I don’t mind the occasional swearing especially if the topic of discussion is particularly close to the blogger’s heart. It just shows that the blogger is emotionally attached to the topic.
However, this can be overdone quite easily. Hence, I refrain from using cuss words lest I step into the same trap.
Funny story, I have a college roommate that doesn’t like swearing at all, so anytime I play music and their’s swearing, someone on TV swears, or anyone in the hall swearing, I sensor it with a *BEEP———–*. Even if I’m late to the punch.
As with the writers that I admire, I feel that swears are words like anything else: use them when they have power and don’t when it’s gratuitous. I can understand and even admire those that deliberately avoid swearing, but I would prefer to continue to write the way I feel is most effective; to write using my own voice, etc.
But I still think that using some well-placed comic book swearing–&%$#!–is often funnier than the words themselves.
Thanks, Darren, for providing this venue where people are able to voice their opinions on this without it getting into an argument. Even though I’m somewhat older than the majority of your readers, I am still adaptable. I can see and appreciate that there are places — and blogs — where words that I don’t care to use are perfectly acceptable. That’s fine. I think you nailed it pretty good when you said, “it’s partly about blogging in an authentic voice.” For me, I don’t often swear, either, so it would not be authenticfor me to swear in my writing. I don’t believe it, either, that it would fit the target audience I am writing for.
I don’t use a lot of swearing on my blogs. Occasionally for emphasis, however I don’t think I’ve ever dropped an ‘f- bomb’.
Personally I do swear in my everyday life, especially if I’m worked up about something. I just feel like on my blog it’s not called for, and I don’t want to offend.
Great topic :)
Speaking of cultural considerations…ever hang around a NewYorker for any amount of time? Some of those folks consider the f-word to be part of regular, everyday language and expression. You can’t walk through New York City without hearing it being used at least a dozen times, or more – by people from all different walks of life.
Since being married to one, I find myself swearing more than I used to (not on my blog, tho)…because he does it so much and I’ve just picked it up from him. And his mother?? SHE is way worse than he is!
I would imagine if my husband kept a blog.. and he wrote the way he talks… most would find it offensive because of the swearing. He, on the other hand – – and others like him.. consider it to be perfectly normal.
The f-word simply punctuates a point for them…and as such, have become completely immune to the ‘shock value’ of it – and they don’t understand why people are looking at them sideways. For them, it should be a word in the English Dictionary…it’s so common.
Haha. I want to see Vic’s (from Blogger Unleashed) opinion on this. He’s always got something to say and will always drop all sorts of curses on everything. It actually brands him.
The long and the short of it for me is that I don’t swear very often in real life so it’s not natural for me to swear when writing.
But I’m really encouraged to see the number of people who don’t use swearing as a regular thing. I think it shows a huge amount of respect for readers not to (just in case it offends).
Having said that though, on a more “personal” style of blogs, you get some who’ll regularly swear and in a way it’s a “what you see is what you get”. They don’t put on a special “face” for their blog. I kinda appreciate the genuine-ness (which I guess isn’t a real word) that comes through when people who their “true selves” on a personal blog.
On business and professional blogs – I agree, definitely not the way to go.
My vote: No, never.
If you don’t swear, everyone is your audience. If you do swear, your audience can get a little limited. Younger people or people who get offended by it won’t read what your blog if you swear all the time. What’s the point in cutting down the amount of people who can read your blog?
Besides, it’s very unprofessional.
I stay away from it.
My philosophy is simple.
If it there’s no gain in swearing, then why do it?
I mean, seriously, who’s going to read your blog just because you swear?
Sorry, that first “what” should be a “while”.
Vic already voiced his opinion out very strongly on the original post. He seemed a little aggressive towards me, which I found odd because I didn’t mean to offend him, or anyone for that matter. I was actually going to praise him, but took it out last second. Anyways, you can read my post to find out what I though, obviously. I was gonna take control of this on my blog, but it looks like Darren caught it first.
Amazing discussion. I can’t believe I left out cultural differences though. I live in Thailand, and Thai people like to say the F-word because its the only English word they know. They don’t know it is offensive to me. Then I push something around with my feet, which is taboo in Thailand, and I am publicly shunned. Really have to careful about where your audience is from.
Thanks for the amazing discussions guys!
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
Here’s how you can tell if it is wrong or not. Ask yourself if you will alienate any of your readers by swearing. Ask yourself if you will alienate any of your readers by NOT swearing.
The thing is, you WILL offend either a large group of your readers or a small group by swearing…they’ll be immediately turned off and may not read your blog as much as they used to. If you don’t swear, you’re free and clear.
It’s a no brainer for me…no swearing period. Why would I choose to alienate ANY amount of readers I have? It’s like shooting myself in the foot.
I have all aged people visiting my site . . . so I need to watch my wording!
Happened a few times. Like when a rioting mob started to make a mess of my city.
I think there are cases when swearing is totally acceptable. Like when some [insert whatever you like here] people star burn cars and wreck buildings in the city you love.
I voted that I swear occasionally on my blog. I think I have at least a few times nor am I adverse to the idea of a few profane words. I would not use them often or in each post. It’s not me.
My blog isn’t just about getting traffic and itself generates no revenue. I formed it to market myself better in my profession. While it’s totally acceptable in many areas of the entertainment field to curse up a storm I’d hate to have someone in Kansas see me on TV, stumble upon my website and then find out I have a potty mouth.
I’ll leave the swearing to when I’m hanging out with my friends or at least when I can get a feel for the audience in front of me.
How funny that you brought up this topic shortly after I dropped a few bombs on my last post! I thought maybe it was a sign!
I don’t feel that I overuse them, but I feel they are necessary to get the point across sometimes.
The topic of “bad” words has always been intriguing to me. I remember as a child, being told not to say certain words because they were bad. All I could think was, “But why? Who decided that was a bad word? Why are some words good and some words bad? How am I supposed to know what I can say and what I can’t?” For all of us non-scholarly types who do not know about the origins of profanity, a Google search for “where to bad words come from” is quite illuminating.
My site is all about giving my opinion on different websites and I write like I talk. I happen to curse a fair amount in daily conversations. It wouldn’t help my blog at all to stop curing. In fact, it might even hurt. Good thing too, because I like swearing.
Swearing is always a bad idea on a blog or anywhere else. You don’t know who’s reading your blog and you don’t want to be responsible for teaching profanity to minors, or endorsing it in its usage.
Well, the title of my blog could be interpreted as about the worst swearing possible. But other than that, I don’t swear too much.
The only words I wouldn’t use or allow are personally abusive words (racist/homophobic language).
The word that most annoys me is ‘retarded’. It’s regularly used as an insult and I wince whenever I read it.
You can get a movie-style rating for your blog here. It tells me you regularly use the word ‘shoot’ on DPS. You bad man.
I don’t swear on my blog, but I don’t swear much anyway. On the flip side, I don’t think there are any individual words that would offend me — it’s the attitude and opinions behind them that matter. Someone can be offensive without swearing, and someone can use swear words without being offensive (like Lisa’s New Yorker husband).
It depends on the audience. When you write about somebody like Gordon Ramsay in a gonzo sorta way you can’t avoid it. Everyone for their own.
I don’t think much about it i blog freely, as i am in a bad mood and feel like cursing on my own blog, why not. For me , a web log is not made for others to enjoy reading, but for me. And if some one reads it and likes, then let them, if not, only one click and you’re off.
I own several blogs and on the commercial ones aimed at building legit businesses behind them, we don’t curse. However, on my personal blog (linked above), I do curse, and quite a bit… enough that a reader of yours sent me a link to this post to tell me I should go give my opinion. One of my blog categories has a curse word in it. Usually, the f bomb is what comes out… you’d never catch me saying c**t or anything along those lines… but, as you said, it’s all about authentic voice, and for me, the usage of swear words is definitely authentic. Someone who met me for the first time in person this past December made the comment that I was “exactly” how I come across in my blog (meant as a compliment I think LOL). My personal blog is indeed about building my brand… it is upkept for mainly business reasons… and yes, I know I alienate certain readers… but at the end of the day, I have to be truthful. To me, being myself is more important than the loss of some subscribers due to my language… and I think I have a much stronger voice with people who *do* subscribe because they know I’m always being upfront.
Reporting Cubs baseball, you would think that I would have a need to swear on the blog. However, not only is it not professional, but it limits your audience in my opinion. Some are turned off by that.
I don’t swear on my blog, but I’m not overly put off by it either. Just yesterday I subscribed to a blog Trizoko), and a large part of the reason was that it did swear.
Take the slogan as an example; “helping your business change the frickin’ world.”
And their posts are all in that vein. These guys have so much personality that I couldn’t help but sign up!
I don’t know how to answer the poll because I don’t know what swearing is. If “damn” is swearing, then yes, I do swear sometimes. If it has to be the F word, then no (though there are few opportunities for that word in technical subjects).
Hello All, I don’t swear on my blog mainly because as a parent I’ll like to keep my posts family friendly. I do respect any blogger that do swear and think is a matter of choice. Cheers.
No. I’m afraid of being smitten by Google because they can’t be used on pages with “excessive” vulgarity. I don’t know where the line is. :)
While I ‘put up with’ a great deal of bad language I simply don’t see the point in using obscenities. It smacks of a lack of tact and refinement. I know, that sounds completely snobbish but the truth is, there are far more effective ways to emphasis a point and print/web is for life. What you commit to the page you then have to live with forever.
Also, I’m raising my children to avoid using bad language. They’ve learnt to reprimand me when I swear. I was raised around swear words so some of the time I just don’t notice if I ‘say’ a bad word but I ALWAYS notice it in text. If I could edit my mouth I’d cut the cussing from there too.
This is an interesting topic. I’m from New York and am used to being around people constantly swearing, so I’ve never even thought I could potentially offend someone because of my use of those words on my blog.
That being said, my main blog is one I would consider for adults and if you are offended by ocassional use of the f-word, you would not be the kind of person who would read me regularly anyway.
No – there’s nothing so bad in print that you can’t find another word to say what you mean. To me, excessive swearing in print, when the type of blog or site doesn’t really call for it, is a sign the author needs to work on their writing skills as a means of expression.
When you are blogging, you are *in public*. Would you swear if you were quoted for the local paper? On the evening news? Would you swear at or to your boss, spouse, family members?
Not only does it make you look less intelligent, it’s unprofessional and inconsiderate.
I do occasionally swear. I try to keep my writing style close to the way I speak, which occasionally has swear words. I don’t want people to read my blog and not really know the way I talk, so I try to combine the way I speak and sometimes a more professional tone, if needed.
Sometimes I feel like the only person on the planet who grew up in a family that simply did not swear. I think I’ve heard my mother use “damn” maybe three times in my life, and I’ve never heard my father use any bad language of any kind. I therefore don’t feel it remotely necessary for getting a point across–we’ve managed to communicate to ourselves and to others well enough all these years.
I’ve become somewhat inured to hearing it, the world being what it is, but do not read blogs, books, or articles that bandy offensive language about. Not so much because I find if offensive (I mean, sure, a little), but because it makes the writing BORING. I wouldn’t like a book that used the words “swell” or “nice” or “nifty” every other paragraph, either . . . because, well, doesn’t the author know any other words? My mother, on the other hand? When she hears bad language, she immediately shuts off and loses all interest and respect for the speaker/writer.
And, you’ve got to love the euphemism “bad language.” (No, no, naughty! No touch!) But the fact that this generation’s euphemism becomes the next generation’s favorite curse word is pretty fascinating.
I usually swear more when commenting on other people’s blogs :)
Nine times out of ten, if I feel like swearing on my blog, I simply replace the swear word with *expletive deleted*. It dates back to my early gaming days when I knew there were a number of young teens in our guild, and it kind of became a trademark with me. In real life, I have a mouth like a sailor. It always shocks people who knew me first on-line, when they talk to me in real life, how much i swear.
If I’m particularly perturbed and seriously want to swear in my blog, I usually put it behind a cut with warnings, for anyone who doesn’t want to be offended. I think I’ve done that exactly once on my blog.
You folks are way too BLACK and WHITE on this issue… What about the fence-sitting curse words? Ya know, the ones that get across the same message via a watered down version?
Like “arse” or “friggin’” or “shizzy” … is there no one else in the blogosphere who takes this middle ground as I do?
AL
On the blog, no. And even in real life, I don’t 99% of the time.
Thus, if you ever hear me swear, you KNOW something is really wrong — you know, the sky is falling, that kind of thing.
I’ve always wondered about people that swear every other word — what do they say when the BLEEP really hits the fan, what would they say then?
Well, I’m a Godblogger, so profanity is not allowed on my blog, either from me or in the comments. If someone uses profanity in a comment, I won’t delete the whole thing (as I’ve seen done), but I will put a little {expletive deleted} thing in place of the offending verbiage.
But when I’m reading someone else’s stuff, profanity doesn’t usually bother me, unless it’s gratuitous. I understand that not everyone shares my distaste for that kind of language (and not everyone can agree on what profanity is), but if someone uses a word just for shock value, it’s a major turn-off for me.
In real life, my husband says I swear like a wounded pirate. Comes from working in emergency medical services for many years, I guess. And in predominantly male jobs the rest of the time. :)
But swear on my blogs? Never. I insist on keeping it family friendly; in fact one of my oft-seen long tail searches are from school kids looking up the question, “Which state has the most lighthouses.”
There’s no need to swear, not even to make a point. There’s enough misspeelings and poor grammar on blogs as it is.
In real life, my husband says I swear like a wounded pirate. Comes from working in emergency medical services for many years, I guess. And in predominantly male jobs the rest of the time. :)
But swear on my blogs? Never. I insist on keeping it family friendly; in fact one of my oft-seen long tail searches are from school kids looking up the question, “Which state has the most lighthouses.”
There’s no need to swear, not even to make a point. There are enough misspellings and poor grammar on blogs as it is.
Please delete the first post above. the site was misbehaving and there was a double post. Thanks.
Never never never. I’m not interested in losing even one person over something so unnecessary.
I don´t ever swear on my blog and very rarely in real life. My blogs are aimed at moms, so I don´t feel that it is very appropriate to use strong language (even when reporting on the hacker that took over my GoDaddy account and stole my domains!).
Several weeks ago I wrote a “hypothetical” post, on the same subject.
I don’t allow profanity on my blogs, but will accept some bleeped*** words. My loyal visitors know this, and respect my wishes.
I worry mostly about young children who are on computers surfing online, and landing on sites, sometimes accidentally. As parents and grandparents I feel it’s our duty to restrain from using swear words, so the children don’t begin to believe it’s acceptable.
The link to my post is
Swearing in a blog post (particularly in a professional blog) is akin to putting up a big sign that shouts, “I’m a lazy writer.”
Not really. My blog is not for the faint at heart though, but I don’t go out of my way to put swearing in. I am not writing for children, so I see no problem with adding the occasional profanity. It’s not a rap song though.
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