I don't know. I hate both the word "faggot" and "nigger". I hate when they are used in jest or as if the word has no meaning/power (ie: "just do it, faggot"). I hate when they are used with power (harsh, directed insults aimed at a person, a group of people, etc).

However, removing comments opens a big door into moderation and that's a door I prefer to leaved closed. I don't think any of the people who run this site have not arbitrarily or unarbitrarily (not a word, I know) moderated/deleted comments/posts and it's nice that way. It allows users to make their own decisions about what they want to see and what they don't.

In the cases of spam we have introduced targeted features to prevent further spam attacks rather than simply deleting the spam. Examples include the auto-global ignore and limiting number of PMs new users can send. This is much more productive and helps Hubski grow in the long run rather than just putting a bandaid on the issue and hoping the issue doesn't get bigger over time.

Some sites will automatically change selected words to other words but it usually ends up being a toy to play with rather than a meaningful way to halt the problem. People try to get around the barrier, people play with the changed words, etc. Back when I played Neopets (I was like 7!) they would change "thong" to "longjohns." You know how much more I wanted to say "thong" after I found that out? 4chan did the same for a while, with n words and f words turning into brightly colored gibberish.

The other issue is that people can say incredibly hateful and derogatory things without using specific words. Is that better or worse than an off-handed comment using one of those words? I don't know but it's something we should consider if we want to set up guidelines for this type of stuff.

I say let the community shame them and don't make me log in as admin. I don't want to moderate - I want to add to the community and help it grow.