I don't know how filters work?
Do you know what Regular Expressions are, without using Google? Have you programmed in Java or C++? Have you adapted a VBScript module into a LotusScript module and used Regular Expressions to validate input data?
If you have, then great. If you have not, or even if you have, it's highly presumptuous for you to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. Validation / filtering can be done elegantly and effectively, or it can be done hurriedly and sloppily. The difference is the amount of time put into the process and the amount of testing that is done on the work.
Edit:
It boils down to really you have to recognize that this is a "free game". As such, you're pretty much going to get pranksters and people who want to do things from the comfort of their own home that they could not get away with in public, at least not for very long. With the structure that's in place, basic word filters are about the most that should be done. You might consider adapting some of the adult content filters in various mail programs spam detection, or get it from major ISPs / mail providers (Earthlink, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft) and look for those specific variations and add to them as time goes on, but looking for "ho" in every single bit of text has two main drawbacks:
1) It is resource intensive.
2) It will likely have an enormous amount of false positives, particularly in a game where you have "host" and "vice-host". Also people can't ask "How can I...", or say the word "however", "I'm going home now", "Who needs help?", and on and on and on...
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I know that people try to defeat filters. The problem becomes one of making too much of a deal about it and then having people who don't understand that you just can't look for every instance of "ho" in a word and filter the word just because it contains that 2-letter sequence. It's about common sense, and about proper Quality Control / Quality Assurance.
Also, to stay relevant to the thread, all the multiple changes to the filter takes time away from fixing bugs or addressing people who use multiple accounts to gain an advantage over others by having a small account that feeds the larger account by providing resources through raids just often enough to be profitable.




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