Chat Filter

The Chat Filter component for Interaction provides a filter so selected phrases submitted to the chat rooms can be converted into something else. This is useful to eliminate filthy or politically incorrect language. May be a better use of the feature is to restrict posting of tags and Javascript to chat rooms, or to create innovative features such as expanding abbreviations or making all smileys posted into images.

The Chat Filter plug-in will create a new item on the tools menu labeled "Chat Filter Map". This will give you an editor where you fill phrases to substitute. If upgrading the component gives you two menu items labeled "Chat Filter Map", remove the file with this name from the Tools folder.

Installing the Chat Filter Component

  1. Download the Chat Filter archive.
  2. Unstuff the archive (most browsers will do this for you).
  3. Find the appropriate version of the component in the folder that best matches your version of Interaction.
  4. Put the component file in the Components folder of Interaction
  5. Restart Interaction to activate the component.

To add a new phrase to be filtered, choose the Chat Filter Map item from the Tools menu. Click the new button. Fill in a phrase and a substitute in the fields, and close the dialog to save the result.

Eliminating Markup

The chat filter can be used to eliminate markup from statements posted to a room. This is easiest achieved by converting the less than sign that starts a tag into a character reference:

FromTo
<&lt;

About Censorship

While filtering of "bad" words at first may seem like a good idea, there are many reasons to be careful on the issue. For one, various ethical and political aspects are worth considering when limiting others freedom of speech. Also, some jurisdictions (in particular United States) give you increased legal responsibilities as you enact in such editorial control.


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