# Would banning words kill this forum?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A member proposed on another thread that the words "great" and "greatest" be banned on this forum (no doubt speaking humorously). What other words, if banned, would seriously reduce forum activity? I'll add two:

- Underrated
- Cage

Others?


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I'd recommend banning the phrase "colon ring," perhaps. It's a bit embarrassing having the "Has anyone seen the colon ring?" thread on the front page of the opera forum, imo.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

"Versus"

..............


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2015)

It would be nice if we could expand the technology from the religion/politics forum where troublemakers are not allowed to post. I don't think any word should be inherently banned, but it would be lovely if troublemakers could lose the right to post in specially tagged threads.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Banning words from this forum would definitely kill it. I mean, what's the point of having a forum if no one's allowed to write on it?
Really sorry for taking the question literally


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

-the
-a
-an
-as
-if
-music


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

dzc4627 said:


> -the
> -a
> -an
> -as
> ...


No problem, can still post without using any of these words you just listed.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> No problem, can still post without using any of these words you just listed.


-only
-trying
-to
-preserve
-the
-union
-but
-i
-do
-morally
-object
-to
-the
-peculiar
-instituion


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2015)

Ban "Wagner" and that would surely kill it. That would kill both the sycophants and the "Wagner was a Nazi" types with one fell swoop.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

A few words come to mind: "favorite", "atonal", "accessible".

A nice topic for a thread.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Blancrocher said:


> I'd recommend banning the phrase "colon ring," perhaps.


Good idea. We really shouldn't be airing our dirty linen here.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I would ban words and phrases like:


Major (as in major composers/works)
Minor (as in minor composers/works)
First rank
Second rank
Third rank
blah, blah, blah.......
Because what I have seen, other than the subjectivity behind them, is how often those placed on lower ranks outdone those in (supposedly) upper echelons (and how dogmatic we tend to be in evaluating composers and their works). Too much of the ranking do not take the works' aesthetic values on their own terms, but used values of masterworks as measuring sticks in evaluating others. Measuring composers is likewise problematic in that respect. A good case in point (out of many examples) is Joly Braga-Santos, whose Fourth Symphony is widely overlooked, and yet it poses serious challenges to the otherwise excellent symphonies of, say, Sibelius, Vaughan-Williams, Bax, Nielsen. Recordings of neglected works over the past few decades as well as recent and current resurgences/renaissance of people like Gal and Weinberg have been examples of us "missing the boat" sort to speak.

Unlike KenOC, I would not ban _underrated_ precisely because of that aforementioned reason.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Schoenberg
4'33"
Beethoven
Other


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Rest.

A key word, I think you will agree.


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## Truckload (Feb 15, 2012)

This sounds like the most recent college craze to ban any speech to which the PC crowd objects. We should also not refer to any great pianists or great violinists. After all, it is just someone's opinion that they are a great musician. All musicians are equally valid and equally skilled, we just have a different concept of being in-tune and playing accurately and so forth. It is just our own personal bias that makes us think that some performers are great and some aren't.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Orfeo said:


> ...Unlike KenOC, I would not ban _underrated_ precisely because of that aforementioned reason.


How about "overrated"?


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

KenOC said:


> How about "overrated"?


or that.............


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Hehe.................................................


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Banning this word would do the trick - poll.


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## Lyricus (Dec 11, 2015)

Truckload said:


> This sounds like the most recent college craze to ban any speech to which the PC crowd objects. We should also not refer to any great pianists or great violinists. After all, it is just someone's opinion that they are a great musician. All musicians are equally valid and equally skilled, we just have a different concept of being in-tune and playing accurately and so forth. It is just our own personal bias that makes us think that some performers are great and some aren't.


I've taught classes which touched upon censorship for a bit now, and I can confidently say that the movement is a large minority, but its inclinations are present among nearly every student. It's scary the knee-jerk reactions I get sometimes.

Edit: Banning major/minor would get rid of legitimate uses in a piece's description. Might as well just ban the first seven letters of the Roman alphabet.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

We could do that.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2015)

"Best" would kill many a thread.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2015)

Worse and worserer.

Plain and plained.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Lyricus said:


> I've taught classes which touched upon censorship for a bit now, and I can confidently say that the movement is a large minority, but its inclinations are present among nearly every student. It's scary the knee-jerk reactions I get sometimes.
> 
> Edit: Banning major/minor would get rid of legitimate uses in a piece's description. Might as well just ban the first seven letters of the Roman alphabet.


Maybe, just maybe.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

How about banning. 
"Greatest"
Any sentence beginning "IMHO"


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## LHB (Nov 1, 2015)

"Like", "opinion", "best", "favorite", "which".


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Haydn man said:


> How about banning.
> "Greatest"
> Any sentence beginning "IMHO"


You don't like the abbreviation or the sentiment? I'd think "in my humble opinion" is the sort of thing that should be welcomed.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

GreenMamba said:


> You don't like the abbreviation or the sentiment? I'd think "in my humble opinion" is the sort of thing that should be welcomed.


Me to, it's much better than the arrogance of thinking you know it all :tiphat:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I don't favour banning words, but we could create a glossary for the site, so that we could regularly refresh ourselves on the TC member-accepted meaning of words such as greatest, genius, masterpiece, (a)tonal... anything we feel we need to define


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2015)

IMHO, it's not the words (they're overrated), but the punctuation that causes the problem. The greatest offender is the ? which is too often used as an in-your-face challenge. The ; on the other hand is greatly underrated; it reflects a much more logical, ordered, way of organising ideas, though it takes a genius to work out whether it's being misused and a . should be used instead.

So, I vote for a poll on which punctuation marks set out to destroy CPT - common punctuation theory, or perhaps a series of polls in which the great punctuation marks battle it out in a deathmatch! 

! v ?
. v ,
: v ;

There could even be a Cage thread where only punctuation gets used, framing the words that might simply occur in the world around you as you read from the initial scare quote to the final.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

I propose that every discussion about Cage (and especially 4'33") should be in invisible text, like this.


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2015)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> I propose that every discussion about Cage (and especially 4'33") should be in invisible text, like this.


Seconded. and not just 4'33."


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2015)

MacLeod said:


> IMHO, it's not the words (they're overrated), but the punctuation that causes the problem. The greatest offender is the ? which is too often used as an in-your-face challenge. The ; on the other hand is greatly underrated; it reflects a much more logical, ordered, way of organising ideas, though it takes a genius to work out whether it's being misused and a . should be used instead.
> 
> So, I vote for a poll on which punctuation marks set out to destroy CPT - common punctuation theory, or perhaps a series of polls in which the great punctuation marks battle it out in a deathmatch!
> 
> ...


I'm down with the Cage thread idea. Because this is not said Cage thread, I've still included some text, so no one gets too confused!


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I have no doubt there are trouble makers on this Forum, as there are on all forums, but I just ignore those kind of people. I really enjoy the privileged of being able to discourse with other people that love classical music. As time goes on it seems like we become more rare. (I know lots of people attend the symphony, but this is often a cultural endeavor), I'm talking about people who really love classical music _on their own private time_. Not collectors, this is fine, not hating, but I'm talking about the experience of being moved by music. Some of us just really love to listen to this stuff, and like many people on this forum, I am one of those people.


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