Comment On Poor Mr. Gookin

Chad Ross works at a Certain State Agency and is unable to send any emails to his client, Mr. Gookin. The CSA's content filter just keeps blocking Chad's outgoing emails, complaining that they contain racist content. More specifically, the filter finds Mr. Gookin's last name to be particularly offensive. Because the CSA's IT administrator refuses to add “Gookin” to the filter's safe word list, Chad is left with the daunting task of asking Mr. Gookin to change his last name to something a little less racist. Now if only he could send out that email request to do so ... [expand full text]
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Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:30 • by anon (unregistered)
The lazy mailadmin strikes again

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:31 • by BBT (unregistered)
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:33 • by 31337 |-|4X0R (unregistered)
Just be 1337. Spell it G00kin. He might think you've got a sticky shift key, but thats better than not hearing from you at all.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:39 • by Dick McBeef (unregistered)
I ran into a similar problem a couple of years ago. A content filter wouldn't let me use the phrase "one group" because the last 2 letters of the first word and the first 3 letters of the next word combine to spell "negro".

I not sure which is worse. Using a stupid content filter or being the person who decided that "negro" is somehow offensive.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:41 • by SomeCoder (unregistered)
This is like the lady who's emails were being bounced from her ISP because her first name was "Gay". At least her ISP fixed that problem from what I remember from the article.

The funny part? She's actually a lesbian.

Will this post get bounced? :)

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:43 • by Gordonjcp (unregistered)
There is an IRC channel out there with an auto-kick bot that kicks on "offensive words". However, since it uses a pretty naive regex like this mail filter, it kicks more-or-less randomly on various typoes and perfectly innocent words like "snigger".

Anyone offended by words should be reminded of the phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me", except it's probably not politically correct to teach that any more

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:44 • by jbinaz (unregistered)
134618 in reply to 134610
BBT:
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.


You punny racist! :p

jbinaz

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:44 • by mottster (unregistered)
"Just be 1337. Spell it G00kin. He might think you've got a sticky shift key, but thats better than not hearing from you at all. "

I'm pretty sure email addresses have to be spelt kinda exact! Unless Mr Gookin's mailadmins have set up mr.g00kin@whever.com to go to him as well

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:46 • by nobody (unregistered)
134620 in reply to 134617
Gordonjcp:
There is an IRC channel out there with an auto-kick bot that kicks on "offensive words". However, since it uses a pretty naive regex like this mail filter, it kicks more-or-less randomly on various typoes and perfectly innocent words like "snigger".

Anyone offended by words should be reminded of the phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me", except it's probably not politically correct to teach that any more


Names could hurt your self-esteem so bad all your code would be great submissions to this site.

Of course, it really is this fixation on not hurting someone's self-esteem that hurts in the long run, because people grow up thinking they should be praised for what ever pile of Paula Beans they produce

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:47 • by mottster (unregistered)
Whatever happened to goatcheez?

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:48 • by lrb
With a last name of Bass, I'm constantly running into problems with filtering problems, which is stupid because there are several legitimate and non-obscene defitions of the word in any English dictionary.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:48 • by jbinaz (unregistered)
134623 in reply to 134615
Dick McBeef:
I not sure which is worse. Using a stupid content filter or being the person who decided that "negro" is somehow offensive.


About as stupid as the politician who got in trouble for properly using the word niggardly to describe someone as miserly and the individual just happened to be black. The media went ballistic because some ignorant people might have misunderstood.

jbinaz

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:55 • by Rich (unregistered)
My last name is Homolka. Fairly common in Czech republic where my great grandparents were from, though here the only famous Homolka's are a bit actor (Oscar) and a serial killer from Canada (Karla Teale, nee Homolka).

So besides all the homo jokes when i was a kid (yes, my porn name is Dick Homo and i didn't even need to try hard) i've been kicked out a few things, including using rhomolka as my login for DSL.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:55 • by Anonymous (unregistered)
134625 in reply to 134622
Seems to be known as the Scunthorpe Problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_Problem

Entertaining that an entire town can drop out of the online world!

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:56 • by Rask (unregistered)
Back in the late 80's, a friend of mine tried logging into a BBS (long distance) for hardware support. The word filter wouldn't let him create an account because of profanity in his last name. He also couldn't get support unless he logged in using his real name.

His last name? Ball.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 12:57 • by david (unregistered)
This is clbuttic.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:04 • by vv (unregistered)
Greek omicron or cyrillic o may be used. They both look like "o".

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:07 • by Zero (unregistered)
I can't say "goodnight" on one forum because it contains "nig"... Hence I say "goodn*ght" now.

It may be enough to send me to the CAPTCHA: sanitarium.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:11 • by KattMan
Filtering engines won't be happy until they are able to filter all free speech, rendering the internet quiet.

Or more poetically...

The filters have struck
There are no longer safe words
The web is silent

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:13 • by KattMan
Hey wait a minute!

Is this WTF actually an anonymized version of this sites name change?

That must be it!

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:17 • by keefer (unregistered)
134634 in reply to 134617
Gordonjcp:

There is an IRC channel out there with an auto-kick bot that kicks on "offensive words".


One of my favorite irc quotes ever: http://bash.org/?178890

captcha: burned :D

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:19 • by rbowes
134635 in reply to 134627
david:
This is clbuttic.

Ack! You stole my joke :(

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:25 • by mannu
We have an art director at our company whos name is "Dick."

Our administrators can't have the highest level on the spam filter because of him.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:26 • by Maciej (unregistered)
134638 in reply to 134623
jbinaz:

About as stupid as the politician who got in trouble for properly using the word niggardly to describe someone as miserly and the individual just happened to be black. The media went ballistic because some ignorant people might have misunderstood.


As I recall, one of his coworkers *did* file a complaint, and the media did a fairly even-handed job of pointing out that the words merely sounded similar.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:29 • by stevekj
134639 in reply to 134610
BBT:
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.


I think they just need to clean up their filters, so they're all spic and span.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:35 • by Steve-o (unregistered)
I wonder if Dick Head, a VP at a large-ish regional bank, is suddenly incommunicado?

p.s. He insisted he be called that instead of the given name of Richard.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:36 • by KattMan
134644 in reply to 134643
Steve-o:
I wonder if Dick Head, a VP at a large-ish regional bank, is suddenly incommunicado?

p.s. He insisted he be called that instead of the given name of Richard.


Richard Cranium
I remember him!

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:38 • by Fred4 (unregistered)
I'd have thought the Confederate States of America would be a little less picky about such things...

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:39 • by Chichikov (unregistered)
At my last job I had a similar problem with the word, Saturday.

saTURDay

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:40 • by KattMan
<****ALERT****>
This post has been replaced by this disclaimer due to a complaint received by someones pet dog in the middle of <****ALERT****> The preceding has been replaced by this disclaimer because it appeared to have innuendos of a se<****ALERT****> The previous text has simply been replaced. Have a nice day.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:43 • by lrb
I wonder if the filters catch waterbuffalo?

http://www.shadowuniv.com/excerpts-wb1.html

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:47 • by Will (unregistered)
134649 in reply to 134639
stevekj:
BBT:
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.


I think they just need to clean up their filters, so they're all spic and span.


Or someone needs to get a cluebat and give them a nice wop on the head.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:56 • by Matsushita (unregistered)
I hear people at Matsushita also often have trouble sending emails.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:58 • by imk (unregistered)
My email story has to do with a facility manager where I work who sent out a pest control request to his workers that kept getting kicked back. He pulled me into his office to help as quite a few people were crowded around his PC trying to figure out what it was.

I looked at it for around a minute before answering "Oh, cockroach is one word".

I guess everyone has at least one story like that.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 13:59 • by Franz Kafka (unregistered)
134655 in reply to 134643
Steve-o:
I wonder if Dick Head, a VP at a large-ish regional bank, is suddenly incommunicado?

p.s. He insisted he be called that instead of the given name of Richard.


Makes a certain amount of sense. Better they call him that to his face than behind his back - he's a VP, so they will anyway.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:05 • by Easy Rhino (unregistered)
We had an employee in Japan named Takashi Taniyama. His email alias was takashit. No kidding.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:17 • by akatherder
The CEO of a very large company I used to work for was Dick Brown. It was much funnier listed in the Corporate Directory as Brown, Dick.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:33 • by dnm (unregistered)
134673 in reply to 134649
Will:
stevekj:
BBT:
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.


I think they just need to clean up their filters, so they're all spic and span.


Or someone needs to get a cluebat and give them a nice wop on the head.


They really should have gotten on that faster and nipped this thing in the bud.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:36 • by Sharkie (unregistered)
The funny thing is- if Mr. Gookin's email ever did make it through, it would probably be lost in the stream of thousands of v!agr@, c1al1s and p3n1s extension emails.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:39 • by jay (unregistered)
134678 in reply to 134639
looks like he found the chink in McAfee's armor.



I think they just need to clean up their filters, so they're all spic and span.

Yes, but if they do proper testing, they could nip it in the bud

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:39 • by Corporate Cog (unregistered)
Ah... One size fits all. Whenever you see something like this you can simply interpret it like yay:

"You are incapable of exercising judgement. No better than all the other pissant peurile salt mine employees here, you are. How's it feel, bitch?"

At least that's the impression management gives me upon implementing web site filtering software that constantly blocks sites with "hack" in the content.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:43 • by Dustin (unregistered)
Can somebody tell me what's wrong with "Dustin" -- I've had two systems reject this as a login name for being a bad word (one being Clearwire -- which I don't recommend, especially if you play WoW).

I have no idea what the offense is.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:49 • by jimlangrunner
134685 in reply to 134617
Gordonjcp:
Anyone offended by words should be reminded of the phrase "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me", except it's probably not politically correct to teach that any more


Politically correct? I gave up on "politically correct" when they told me someone's feelings were more important than honesty and integrity.

Beauty is only skin deep, but stupidity goes to the bone.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:56 • by Andrew (unregistered)
134687 in reply to 134619
mottster:
"Just be 1337. Spell it G00kin. He might think you've got a sticky shift key, but thats better than not hearing from you at all. "

I'm pretty sure email addresses have to be spelt kinda exact! Unless Mr Gookin's mailadmins have set up mr.g00kin@whever.com to go to him as well


This highlights just how WTF the filter is! An outgoing "filth" filter should read the text Subject: & body sections. Leave the From: & To: address lines to Mr. Gookin's incoming SPAM filters.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 14:57 • by Michael Kohne (unregistered)
To complete the circle of stupid, someone needs to tell Mr. Gookin this story and have him mis-understand and think he's being called a racist, then sue the agency for defamation.

It would, frankly, be funny as all get out.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 15:05 • by Lazgen (unregistered)
There was a poor guy that worked on a miserable product at Oracle that was never officially released (it was sold to one of our clients anyway, go figure.) We called to get support for this product and the only guy left at the company who worked on the product (did I mention that the product was truly miserable?), had the unfortunate name of Rockshit...

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 15:17 • by Belcat (unregistered)
134695 in reply to 134615
Dick McBeef:
I ran into a similar problem a couple of years ago. A content filter wouldn't let me use the phrase "one group" because the last 2 letters of the first word and the first 3 letters of the next word combine to spell "negro".

I not sure which is worse. Using a stupid content filter or being the person who decided that "negro" is somehow offensive.

Negro is the term slavers used for black men. Do you really want to make even the slightest implication of that, when saying "black men" is just as good?
I am amazed how people will mention someone's race in their stories even though it is totally irrelevant (ie, this black guy was waiting in line at the supermarket and... why did they mention black? it was not relevant).

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 15:21 • by Joshua Starr (unregistered)
134699 in reply to 134624
Homo Polka?

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 15:32 • by lrb
134702 in reply to 134695
Belcat:
Dick McBeef:
I ran into a similar problem a couple of years ago. A content filter wouldn't let me use the phrase "one group" because the last 2 letters of the first word and the first 3 letters of the next word combine to spell "negro".

I not sure which is worse. Using a stupid content filter or being the person who decided that "negro" is somehow offensive.

Negro is the term slavers used for black men. Do you really want to make even the slightest implication of that, when saying "black men" is just as good?
I am amazed how people will mention someone's race in their stories even though it is totally irrelevant (ie, this black guy was waiting in line at the supermarket and... why did they mention black? it was not relevant).


"Boy" was a term used by Jim Crow supporters to referr to blacks. Guess we have to ban that. "Grand" and "Wizard" are right out too. And dare I say that I feel sorry for anyone named "Leroy". "Oreo" is very offensive. "Wet" and "back" can't be allowed. "Red" and "Neck" need to be thrown out. And the people of the sub continent of India will have to remain nameless lest we offend Native Americans. Let the ridiculous, Politically Correct, Anally retentive sensorship continue.

So let's not share any speeches or quotes by Martin Luther King, lest we offend someone by the use of "Negro". Let's not talk about certain rivers in South America lest we use a slave term. Latin, Spanish and other names describing something black are right out.

Re: Poor Mr. Gookin

2007-05-02 15:37 • by M L (unregistered)
The funny thing is that a similar incident was in the Australian newspapers just today where the person's name was "Gay Hamilton".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-tales/a-gay-by-any-other-name/2007/04/29/1177787953774.html
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