My name is not obscene! Profanity filters run amok.

While updating my Yahoo! profile this morning I seem to have run into their new profanity filter. I went to save my profile and I kept getting the following alert, i.e. "The content was not saved since it infringes the Yahoo! Terms of use (Profanity)." I didn't see any profanity but supposedly I was using foul language.

I then decided to remove my last name "Cummins." Yahoo! finally let me save the page. They feel my name is obscene. Now "Cummins" is a fine Irish name which originated as "Cumin." Yahoo! also would not let me type "Cumin," "Cumins," "Cummings," or even "O'Cummings" another derivative of my last name.

I decided to fool around and see what other words they dislike. It turns out quite a few. You cannot of course type "cock." If your name happens to be "John Hancock" don't even think of typing it. If you want to type "cockpit," same thing. No can do. If you want to type about your "cocker spaniel" dog or "Joe Cocker" the musician, you are not allowed. Same goes for "cocktail," "cocktail dress," "cockles," "Cocktail the movie," and "Babcock engineering."

Here are a few more "obscene" words according to Yahoo! Of course you can't type "butt." You also can't type "buttocks," "cigarette butt" or even "butter." Everyone knows how obscene "butter" is. You also can't type "piss," "pissed," "pisser" or even "pissant," a type of ant.

If your name is "Dick," you're in luck. You can type it. You just can't of course type "penis." If your last name is "Spenise," you are obscene. You of course can't type "ass" but "gluteus maximus" is fine. If you want to type "fag" meaning a cigarette, you are not allowed. Same goes for people who's last name is "Fagg." If you want to share a story about your "pussy cat," you are not allowed but you can talk about your "puss" all day and night.

If you want to brag that your kid graduated "magna cum laude," no can do. Seems the latin word "cum" which means "with" is profane. The profanity filter seems to be in English only. I put in a few obscene Spanish words and they were fine. You can type "culo," "puto," "chinga," but don't type the English translations which are "ass," "whore" and "*uck" respectively.

Seems LA Times also uses a profanity filter for article comments. I can type my name or even type obscene words. The filter automatically turns the obscene letters into "*." My name becomes "Mary ***mins." 

Obviously there are workarounds if you want to cuss up a storm on Yahoo! I changed my last name from "Cummins" to "Cümmins" and I was no longer obscene. You can also type "f*ck" and "fvck" but you can't type "$HIT" or "A$$." They realize people will get creative to get around the profanity filters. Even though you can't type "ass" or "A$$" you can type "asinine" and the misspelling "assinine." And that just about sums up how I feel about this ridiculous profanity filter.

Signed,
Mary ***mins
p.s. The profanity filter is in your Yahoo! profile for your name.