Hey Commentard! - or is that Commenter?
Last month a Reg reader contacted us via our Twitter account to complain about the use of the word "freetard", on the grounds that, as an analogue of "retard", the word was derogatory to people with mental handicaps. Americans may have a little difficulty in understanding the substance of this complaint, in the way that most …
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Re: ha!
Here in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Canuckistan you'll have your life destroyed if the 'someone else' is a 'designated group', and the 'offended' complains to the appropriate local/national government agencies.
Jimmy Somerville
This raises a highly important question; Commentard is to commenter, as Communard is to ....? Was "Communard" offensive to someone (other than musically, I mean)?
Never really thought of it like that...
... I think my brain went down the route of thinking the whole 'tard' part was a bastardisation of 'turd' which fitted well in my head when referring to freetards etc.
I've never been very good at this politically correct stuff, got better things to do than pick through a minefield of words in case someone runs home crying.
Really?
It's not just the Americans who don't understand the fuss, I don't, and I'm 75% English, 25% Welsh and born just outside London.
Then again, if anyone does something stupid I still called them a Joey or Spethal.
The only PC I recognise has a motherboard.
Re: The only PC I recognise has a motherboard.
Yes we don't get enough bobbies on the beat around here either.
Retard is offensive?
First I heard about it.
So I'll have to go back to calling the mentally handicapped "windows lickers"? Its political correctness gone mad.
in the 'tard' scheme of things, does this make someone who swears a lot a 'custard'?
i'll get my coat - mine is the one with the can of ambrosia :)
Optional
No, a custard is a customer or client who is... none too bright. One who asks for advice, then ignores it, then comes back to you to solve the problems they have as a result of ignoring your advice.
Political correctness.
I would drop the use of freetards and commentards if retards allowed us to call them retardtards, that is "somebody who is retarded enough to be retarded".
3rd option?
OK now, where is the 3rd option called "Whatever..."?
Re: 3rd option?
In with the other cheerleader stuff? Have you tried the pompom locker?
Sometimes retard is considered offensive in the US, too
There are some circles here in the US where retard is considered a massively offensive word, too.
What's really fun is, I've encountered some of those people on a technically oriented diesel car forum.
Talking about injection timing can be dangerous if you're not careful...
Oh, and I voted for commentard.
Leave 'em alone
They're made up words and mostly confined to this site - I never saw the 'tard' connection to 'retard'. Yes I thought it was insulting, but not in that way. If you must - have a poll of all registered 'tards, and add a word to the banned list if it gets, say, >60% of the vote. I'll abide by that. But I do like to use 'spooks' for the security services, though.
Commentard is OK, Freetard not so much
We're all commentards, its use is a self-deprectory bit of fun aimed at people who comment here. Freetard is a rather snide label for a group of people who, either provide valuable software for free, or have a disagreement with current copyright law. Commentard is affectionate. Freetard is mud-slinging.
Re: Commentard is OK, Freetard not so much
Why do you think that?
Freetard and Paytard are antonyms and are used by el Reg fairly regularly, if they are snide labels then at least el Reg is slinging mud in all directions, what you might call balanced journalism.
If all are treated equally in such a way then how can it be derogatory?
Biting the hand that feeds IT and all that.
Re: Commentard is OK, Freetard not so much
Mud-slinging is why I come here.
Seriously though, it kind of is. I take open argument based bias over bias hidden as objectivity any day. Take the copyright debate, other media outlets tend to either refer to the freetards as criminals or more like digital freedom fighters. If not themselves the angle on their coverage tend to lean one way or the other, and all under the disguise of being objective and balanced. I much rather prefer El Reg's coverage where they say what everybody knows that the vast majority of people downloading stuff do it because it is convenient and that they do not want to pay. There is no large political agenda and they are not part of a vast criminal syndicate. And after summing all that up nicely in a single word with fuzzy meaning, the vultures move on to debate the actual issues around copyright with actual arguments.
Btw, since when did vultures care about what people think? It is not like something that waits for the prey to die before engaging is all that into playing fair.
for the record JAP is offensive here too.
the article seems to take as give that the word 'jap' is not offensive in British English. I assure you it is. there are experiments you can do to verify this.
which begs the question what you are supposed to the hole in the end of your johnson.
as for commentard: freetard is ok provided you mean the value judgement it implies, it's not offensive to anyone with learning difficulties unless, of course, they also download warez. if you are comfortable with the value judgement implied by commentard then continue to use it, but it's always annoyed me.
Push back the limits
Anything that stands against the tutting, intolerant and politically correct must be a good thing.
Re: Push back the limits
I agree! Down with Handwringing Tuttards!
I like the terms...
"freetard", "Commentard", "fandroid", "fanboi", "boffin", "haktivists", "Chocolate Factory", "fondleslab", "moderatrix", "lackey", "Web2.0gasm", "Motion Picture Ass. of America", "Jobsian", "web2.0rhea", etc... I'd like to see more.
If anything, El Reg is far too restrained, as I'm sure regular readers of Private Eye will agree.
Offended? Really?
Given as when you read the "voice" is normally in your own head surely you are only offending yourself. As such anyone that reads something they find offensive only have themselves to blame and therefore should stop reading immediately. Ever. Including this.
Considering retard means to delay or slow (something) down, it doesn't particularly make sense in this local parlance.
Articulatards
never be a commentator
Since when did a plain old comment get itself aggrandised as a commentate ?
Whats wrong with "Peanut"?
As in "Peanut gallery".
Most people - perhaps all - who comment on anything online are nuts anyway.
You choose it yourself
It could go in the user profile to have a Forum spellcheck that automatically changes words to your favoured sensibility.
Analogous to Andrew O.'s use of "freetard", "commentard" could reserved for those intellectually challenged who frequent the forums to vent their spleen by engaging keyboard before brain. Much in the spirit of the Far Side cartoon "Midvale School for the Gifted". I think shifting from "er" to "ar" is a bit shit. "commenturd" would keep the pronunciation, irony and add some toilet humour. But for normal dudes "commenter" should suffice.
WTF!
El Reg is an institution, and we love the fact that Apple amongst many other over sensitive PR departments take umbrage.
Heck, I wouldn't be offended if reg called me a f**ktard for commenting.
Perhaps El Reg should start selling Polyfilla to fill those chips on shoulders?
Having a son with severe mental disabilities I hate the use of anything-tard, but I understand that in this instance it is not meant as an insult.
However, I do reserve the right to consider anyone that uses it as a sad Muppet and a total and utter idiot lacking in self esteem who supports their desperate need to fit by using all the latest cool words.
So you have been told.
Of course if the term was withdrawn it would become more popular.
I have always said that people who get offended by such things need to be offended more often!
Perhaps they will grow a thicker skin.
Canadian commentard/freetard, and damn proud of it!
Favtard
My favourite is still mactard. Perhaps what they will call custard at McDonald's.
No such thing as a bad word
Censorship, even self-imposed, is always a bad thing.
"most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Only if you're a fucking idiot, surely?
Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Hmm. In the UK, "Jap" is a shortened version of "Japanese". And that's all it is. You don't have to be an idiot, fucking, or otherwise to understand this.
Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Ummm....I've googled, and checked wikipedia, but am still at a loss to work out how it means anything other than a shortened version of Japanese. It's no more offensive than using the word Brit to describe an English person shirley?
Re: Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Just a guess, but "Jap" was probably popularized during WWII, a time at which it would only have been used in a negative context.
Re: Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
What I find amazing is that the Polish word 'polak' (meaning a male Polish person) is now used as a racial insult (but spelled 'polack') in the US against Poles in general. (As a matter of interest, a female Polish person is 'polka', in Polish).
Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
A fucking idiot is a procreating idiot.
All right, all right, I'll go now. Mine is the slightly humorous one that everybody just find silly.
Re: Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Jewish American Princess
Re: Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
"I've googled, and checked wikipedia, but am still at a loss to work out how it means anything other than a shortened version of Japanese."
Your Googling has not turned up Superman's "Slap a Jap" campaign, then I guess. Wikipedia is where information goes to die.
Re: Re: "most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Context, my friend, context.
Of course, if one (not you) wishes to pretend that there is no such thing as context, and that there is no mood but the indicative, then nothing at all can be offensive.
Tard and feathered
The Urban Dictionary defines "tard" as "someone so retarded that they do not deserve the 're' prefix".
And Couche-Tard is a large Canadian chain of convenience shops.
Just thought you'd be interested!
Can't vote...
...because FF 10.0.2 plus NoScript just shows me an empty thin grey bar where the voting application is, and turning off script permissions shows me a black/grey vulture telling me to turn on scripting.
So, it's buggered, and I might not bother voting via IE.
"...in the way that most Brits find it hard to understand why "Jap" is a racial slur in the US."
Wait, what!?
Also it's worth keeping in mind that it's easy to not be offended when you aren't in the group that's potentially being marginalised.
Lipstick on a pig?
I suspect that the complaintard, relating to freetard, might have been the half-term governor of Alaska, Fox News queen and reality TV star, Sarah Palin.
It's not just retard
nearly all words ending -ard are (or were once) derogatory tags [1], I would therefore like (and have voted for) the suffix to be dropped in favour of the more neutral -er.
[1] Including niggard which has nothing to do with people of dark-skinned breeds.
Re: It's not just retard
I would hazard a guess that you are wrong. What about all those wizards and buzzards out there?
Re: It's not just retard
> nearly all words ending -ard are (or were once) derogatory tags
I'm sure the "bARD" would disagree. Surely you would rewARD his talent and have regARD for his hARD work. You wouldn't give him his cARDs. I think you've been hoist by your own petARD.
Niggard
"Niggard" can get you into trouble in Canada.
Mind you, the guy's harumphing over "faggot" shows that he likes to irk others with his obnoxious brand of pedantry.
Re: Niggard
It could get you in trouble here in the US, too, no fear -- we don't have the noun form in our lexicon, or at least I've never seen a writer in the States use it, but the adverbial form yet clings to life and every so often someone loses a job over that.
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