Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-24011918-20131214001227/@comment-5239282-20131216232458

Languages evolve (and die), and so do people. I've spoken with many homosexual people, and the vast majority of them say that they've grown numb and unhearing to criticism they face due to their sexuality. Words such as gay and faggot are losing their merit as a derogatory term. It's an incredibly slow change, sure, but there's a certainly noticeable difference from, say, five years ago. Any party involved can take a stand and choose either to adapt to cultural change or remain in the past. Just look at all the variations of the word nigger alone, as Maria mentioned prior.

In effect, evermore harsher rules regarding these terms speaks volumes about our frame of mind -- it says we're unwilling to change with the times. While this is hardly a matter of reputation, severer punishment is largely unnecessary (going back to the original proposition). Not to mention sporadic rule changes can be harmful to the community's growth. I believe we've already molded our rules to the tune of today's culture.

On an unrelated note, a censor bypasses all of this if you give users the option on what and what not to filter. ;p

Mind you, this merely covers homophobic slurs. I'm sure you can apply this to "retards," but not with the same effectiveness.