Strange Forum Malfunction

Brian556 · March 30, 2012, 10:15:31 AM

In my post about the I-35E expansion; I typed [a word referring to a computer periferial device used to enter text and numbers], and when I hit "PREVIEW"; the word was changed to "leopord" I deleted and retyped the word, and it happened again. This also is happening when I try to preview this message.
I am typing a word referring to a computer periferial device used to enter text and numbers, and the name of an animal is magically being posted.
What the hell?

NE2 · March 30, 2012, 10:21:01 AM

vdeane · March 30, 2012, 10:46:22 AM

http://xkcd.com/1031/

agentsteel53 · March 30, 2012, 11:11:34 AM

I have no problem with typing the word "keyboard".

NE2 · March 30, 2012, 11:38:25 AM

Oh, it's xkcd.

Takumi · March 30, 2012, 12:59:15 PM

The leopard on my laptop is starting to function poorly. Should I get an external leopard or see if the warranty covers leopard replacement?

NE2 · March 30, 2012, 01:02:37 PM

My keyboard won't let me type hep cat.

agentsteel53 · March 30, 2012, 01:04:49 PM

if you type the word that begins with L, it changes that back to "keyboard".

english si · March 30, 2012, 03:23:35 PM

Leopard is still leopard (these were the spotted big cats, not the thing used to type this post)

Alps · March 30, 2012, 06:24:26 PM

I think you want the title to be "Strange Keyboard Malfunction."

hbelkins · March 30, 2012, 10:09:46 PM

Why are you all talking about one of the Mac OS X iterations?

Oh wait, that's snow keyboard, isn't it?

(And "keyboard" above was originally typed "k e y b o a r d" without the spaces.)

Hot Rod Hootenanny · March 30, 2012, 10:34:51 PM

My first handle on MTR was leopard.

Scott5114 · March 30, 2012, 10:38:21 PM

In case anyone hasn't caught on yet: One of the other admins (I'm guessing Steve

) decided to have fun with the forum's auto-censoring filter and reference the XKCD linked above. "Kəyboard" automatically filters to "leopard".

Just one of us having fun, that's all. No malfunction.

Alps · March 31, 2012, 08:42:03 AM

Quote from: Scott5114 on March 30, 2012, 10:38:21 PM
In case anyone hasn't caught on yet: One of the other admins (I'm guessing Steve ) decided to have fun with the forum's auto-censoring filter and reference the XKCD linked above. "Kəyboard" automatically filters to "leopard".

Just one of us having fun, that's all. No malfunction.

How educated of a guess is this

Scott5114 · March 31, 2012, 10:53:05 AM

Well, it wasn't me...

vtk · March 31, 2012, 10:53:59 AM

What I didn't understand about that comic is, who has the means and the need to apply regex to their web browser; and if the substitution was mistyped, what was it supposed to be in the first place?

PS – This message was typed on a keyboard small enough to be a choking hazard for a leopard.

J N Winkler · March 31, 2012, 01:31:26 PM

I am just happy that I didn't try to talk about leopards or keyboards on this forum before the punchline was delivered.

Quote from: vtk on March 31, 2012, 10:53:59 AMWhat I didn't understand about that comic is, who has the means and the need to apply regex to their web browser; and if the substitution was mistyped, what was it supposed to be in the first place?

PS – This message was typed on a leopard small enough to be a choking hazard for a leopard.

The title of this Xkcd comic is part of the Unix expression one would type to replace every instance of "keyboard" with "leopard"--in full it is

sed s/keyboard/leopard/g inputfile.txt > outputfile.txt

In this case "keyboard" is a simple regex, matching just the string "keyboard". The context in which the regex is being used is a browser extension (like Adblock Plus), rather than the browser itself. (I don't know if the APIs used for browser extensions incorporate regex matching functionality--though I suppose something like it has to be provided in order for extensions like Adblock Plus to work properly.)

Duke87 · March 31, 2012, 08:34:48 PM

Heh. Nice. An early April Fool's joke, I suppose.

Though, if the reverse maneuver was in place, it no longer is. Leopard stays leopard.

Alps · March 31, 2012, 11:16:49 PM

You can't convert keyboard to leopard and leopard back to keyboard - infinite loops are unhappy.

WillWeaverRVA · March 31, 2012, 11:27:26 PM

I really ought to get a Mac running leopard. Not sure why I'd want one though...

Now to wait for Apple to announce "Mac OS Key-board".

J N Winkler · April 01, 2012, 06:56:14 AM

Quote from: Steve on March 31, 2012, 11:16:49 PMYou can't convert keyboard to leopard and leopard back to keyboard - infinite loops are unhappy.

Sorry, that explanation doesn't persuade unless you are also maintaining that the database stores only the output of the filter (not the input).

hbelkins · April 01, 2012, 01:35:59 PM

OK, who changed "f o r u m" to "usenet?"

And here I thought "pigsty1953" was the biggest Usenet malfunction.

Duke87 · April 01, 2012, 03:02:34 PM

Quote from: Steve on March 31, 2012, 11:16:49 PM
You can't convert keyboard to leopard and leopard back to keyboard - infinite loops are unhappy.

But that depends on how you write the program. You need a loop to produce an infinite loop whereas I'd assume autocensors depend more on if statements.

If text=hello
text=goodbye
Else if text=goodbye
text=hello
End If

does not produce an infinite loop. Though, it will make the words switch back and forth every time the post is edited or replied to.

J N Winkler · April 01, 2012, 04:39:13 PM

Will site management please give an assurance that this will be the last occasion of the swearword filter being used in this way? April Fool practical joking aside, it is fundamental to users' expectations that what they type is what they see when they click Post.

rickmastfan67 · April 01, 2012, 06:45:58 PM

Don't worry, this mass stuff today is only for April Fool's Day. We wouldn't do this in mass on other days. Everything will be reverted after Midnight Westcoast time.

-- Megatron

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Strange Forum Malfunction