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One distinctive feature of modern Russian language is that profanities are not used simply to emphasize normal language, but in most use cases substitute core words in sentences and bring a meaning of their own. I've seen many exchange students struggling to understand casual Russian dialogs containing мат, though their grasp of spoken language was satisfactory or even good.

The question here - should we allow the questions regarding origins, meaning and proper use of Russian profanities? If there are 500-pages dictionaries dedicated simply to мат, doesn't it mean that we should dedicate time to questions regarding it?

3 Answers 3

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Sure thing we should! Isn't it the most remarkable part of the Russian language?

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    It's hopefully not, but I agree to allow it.
    – texnic
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 9:48
  • Also I wouldn't say that this is a part of Russian language only. As far as I know, other Slavic languages have the same words.
    – Malcolm
    Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 9:56
  • Malcolm, did anybody but you said anything about it being a solely Russian thing?
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 23, 2012 at 4:56
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They should be allowed with certain provisions:

  • Question titles should not contain profanity
  • Questions should be tagged accordingly, so that they may be filtered out
  • They should satisfy all other quality requirements and not contain vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity.
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    Why no profanity in the title? I'd prefer "What's the origin of [word]" over "What's the origin of this swear word?" as an informative title.
    – Tim
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:19
  • @ТимН because not everybody wants to see profanity?
    – kotekzot
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:20
  • kotkezot, at the same time not everybody is embarrassed by the profanity being an essential part of their mother language.
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:40
  • @bonomo that doesn't mean we should offend people.
    – kotekzot
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:42
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    kotekzot, there must be something said in FAQ or the disclaimer section about that, which is what most people do not to offend the others
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:52
  • oh, i am sorry i though i did my best, now it's your turn, itn't it?
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:55
  • kotekzok, thank you for being so kind and letting me know about your limitations, next time i will put some extra effort to make sure people with like you won't be left aside.
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:02
  • kotekzok, I feel so tired tonight, can I do it tomorrow, I promise I will
    – Trident D'Gao
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:17
  • Tags about that would probably be meta tags.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:43
  • @Alenanno are you suggesting we create a separate method of filtering out those questions then, or that we shouldn't provide that option at all?
    – kotekzot
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:48
  • I don't know how other sites handled it... Perhaps we could ask other language sites?
    – Alenanno
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:50
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    Just create a suitable tag like "profanity" or "mat". Although Cyrillic tags don't work, the Latin capital form MAT would work.
    – KCd
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 0:05
  • I agree with @TимН... Profanity should be allowed in titles.
    – Philip Seyfi
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 22:31
  • If we are tagging, then that tag should be ignored for anonymous users and by default. Should we let Google see the questions?
    – nanofarad
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 18:30
  • @ObsessiveFOSS I think hiding them by default is a little too much. Perhaps a popup asking whether you'd like questions re: profanity to be hidden?
    – kotekzot
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 19:48
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Since the community is torn between the 2 existing options (all-out profanity or heavily regulated profanity), I'm posting this revised suggestion.

They should be allowed with certain provisions:

  • Questions should be tagged accordingly, so that they may be filtered out
  • They should satisfy all other quality requirements and not contain vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity.

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