Scunthorpe problem love

Scunthorpe problem

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The situation where a spam filter or search engine blocks or modifies content because the text contains a string of letters shared with an obscene word.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named after the erroneous censorship of the word Scunthorpe (a UK town) by Internet service AOL, because it contained the substring cunt.

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  • "The Scunthorpe problem occurs when a spam filter or search engine blocks e-mails or search results because their text contains a string of letters that are shared with an obscene word. While computers can easily identify strings of text within a document, broad blocking rules may result in false positives, causing innocent phrases to be blocked.

    The problem was named after an incident in 1996 in which AOL's dirty-word filter prevented residents of the town of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England from creating accounts with AOL, because the town's name contains the substring cunt." (Wikipedia)

    January 5, 2013