The biggest issue with profanity, swear words, abusive language or language pertaining to abuse is that here on the Internet, almost none of us 'know' each other. If we were all in a room together discussing this subject it would be very easy to see who among us were made uncomfortable or disapproved of our more colour use of language. It would also be pretty easy to work out who was using such language jokingly, in context, or within the accepted boundaries of any particular sub group.
In situations such as this forum we have none of those immediate indicators to whether or not our conversational style is acceptable to those around us or not. We also have absolutely no idea who those people reading our messages are so we have no normal social references available to us.
What we may think of as a perfectly legitimate or acceptable comment within the confines of our normal face-to-face or voice-to-voice social circles will be seen on this and other forums by many others who may not be included in those circles and may very well not approve of, or accept the style of language use we could get away with otherwise.
For that reason alone, anyone using a public forum such as this where absolutely anyone could and does read our comments, we should all really be refraining from the kind of comments and language we would not use in front of our parents, grand parents or children. Because it's very possible those family members will be reading it.
On public forums like this it is incumbant on all participants to self-censor on the assumption they are talking to people that they would normally self-censor for in the outside world; mother, boss, bank manager, criminal court room, etc. If any of us fail to do so we must expect those that run forums such as this to carry out censorship on our behalf. We would all be better to consider the moderators our collective guilty concience rather than the Word Police
