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Comment by xiaoma | Hacker News Reader

From a logical standpoint it still doesn't make any sense. Do the pictures have anything to do with fucking? No, they don't. Is there anything particularly curse-worthy or even startling about them? Nope. They're a bunch of random boring places.

Putting "fuck" in the domain name adds nothing and it makes me less likely to share links with some people who's sensibilities matter to me. My grandmother is one such person. She's one of the few people I'm close to that would really appreciate the functionality of this site, but it's just not the kind of domain name she'd be comfortable going to.

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I understand your issue with sharing such a link with your grandmother, and that would have been an issue for me as well (if I had a living grandmother). I respect my grandmother and I would always honor her values because of her accomplishments (esp. b/c I directly benefited from them), but I don't agree with many of the beliefs she held that caused her to take issue with 'curse' words.

I'm hoping someone will help me out and correct my logic because that would be most helpful.

Hammock: So, if my logic is socially naive, that makes it incorrect?

Of course not. But are you seriously going to make "people should not be offended by curse words" a principle for which you're willing to sacrifice customers? There are ideals more deserving of your time, I think.

It's not that you're wrong, it's that being right wins you no prizes here.

Your "logic" is socially naive.

The word fuck doesn't always refer to fucking, it's a generic adjective that adds emphasis to anything and is common language for a huge part of the population. Most people don't even realize when they curse because words are words. You're being prude!

You're being prude!

You're being obtuse.

The taboo around certain words in certain contexts is a consensus that serves a purpose. You can use them and receive certain extra attention, but also lose other people to distraction.

Like others, I have no problem with using this myself, but wouldn't pass it on to a general audience. If I were to do so, I would signal that I am careless and casual with the use of the word 'fuck', when it is too important of a word to devalue so.

If the creator's goal is to limit adoption to a certain audience, the use of 'fuck' is a good idea. If they want wider adoption, it isn't. Both are valid choices.

> The taboo around certain words in certain contexts is a consensus that serves a purpose. You can use them and receive certain extra attention, but also lose other people to distraction.

Sure, and in this case, good riddance to them. Anyone who avoids sharing this app because of the word fuck has zero sense of humor and isn't the target audience. Anyone who critiques it for the word fuck, isn't the fucking target audience. There is nothing wrong with the word fuck in non fucking formal circumstances, even to a general audience. There are times not to use the word fuck; this isn't fucking one of them.

You view the word 'fuck' as common; I view it as special. I respect it too much to wear it out promoting a photo-location-discussion-service. Perhaps someday you will love the word 'fuck' like others do! But for now, you're treating her like a trashy throwaway whore.

It is common, so common most people use it many many times daily. She's not a princess to be put on a pedestal and brought out on special occasions. In fact, it's the opposite, she's to be hidden on special occasion's when you're fancying it up, and there's nothing fancy about a photo location service that would require censoring common language.

'common' and 'special' aren't antonyms.

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