if I had a problem with a few swear words I think I would find it offensive you assume Im offended by words like '!@#$%'
OK, let me speak as someone who uses the swear filter. (I do) I'm not a prude, but I don't like swearing when it's really not necessary, and I find it offensive when used that way. I don't know why, but something about a masked word, even with just one asterisk, like f*ck (although I prefer f**k) seems less offensive. I do want to know what the person is saying, though, and word replacement does work, but the problem is that it needs to be very, very precise, especially with words as volatile as !@#$% or words like hell, which can be vulgar or not depending on their context. (I don't have a problem with the word hell, and use it sometimes) Like !@#$% to funk. It makes no sense in any situation, and it's pathetic. So, overall, it's better to mask words so as not to offend those who don't want to see the words without making it unclear what the person is saying. Also, when quoting posts, if !@#$% changes to funk, it is annoying for users who don't use filtering, but changing to f**k is far less annoying.
And as Taka said, I am not offended by !@#$% - the only people who are offended by words like !@#$% are super-conservative people of the previous generation or little kids who are being raised by those kinds of people.
As a side note, I also don't think sexual slang or racial slurs should be censored, except for DICK, which is used more as a swear word than anything else. And I have never read a topic with the words !@#$% or cum here anyway.
