How Jeff Bezos Pwned Publishing

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I know all about kiddies trying to make up their own words because they made a typo. It originally came into being because of a typo. And it's not a real word. never will be.

You're that old man that told my grand parents not to worry, groovy would never be a word aren't you?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

It might have died a merciful death, had not "Owned" been put into the obscenity filtering software at several large gaming sites - leading to use of the misspelled version to circumvent the censors.

OK, now you've lost me. How does "owned" end up in an obscenity filter? One can understand why the inhabitants of the English seaside town on "Scunthorpe" have long had to live with the problem of not being able to use their town's name on AOL, etc, but "owned"?

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by HarryT

OK, now you've lost me. How does "owned" end up in an obscenity filter? One can understand why the inhabitants of the English seaside town on "Scunthorpe" have long had to live with the problem of not being able to use their town's name on AOL, etc, but "owned"?

If I remember right, it got into the obscenity filter because of how it was being used. People got fed up of seeing it so pwned became more common. I for one am crotchety enough that I'm perfectly happy that pwned is still flagged by my spell-checker.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Sorry, it is not a typo. People use it deliberately. How do you think most words come into existence?

Yep. I'd call it slang (or something like that), it's not just a typo.

[goodellboy]

Is it pronounced "owned" or "pawned" (like a ring)? Or have World of Warcrafters given up speech?

[Shaggy]

It's not like we can really complain. Since when was pBook a "real" word.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

OK, now you've lost me. How does "owned" end up in an obscenity filter? One can understand why the inhabitants of the English seaside town on "Scunthorpe" have long had to live with the problem of not being able to use their town's name on AOL, etc, but "owned"?

It's not really about an "obscenity" filter. A lot of times it was used when players wanted to start taunting each other... which eventually led to a bunch of obscenity (it's the 21st century version of saying "Nyah nyah" on the schoolyard). That's mainly why stuff like that was added to filters. Of course, it's trivial for people to just get around the filters, hence "pwned", so the whole thing is kind of pointless (kind of reminds me of DRM).

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by goodellboy

Is it pronounced "owned" or "pawned" (like a ring)? Or have World of Warcrafters given up speech?

Most people I know pronounce it "powned". Just like owned, but put a p in front of it.

[Alphapheemail]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I know all about kiddies trying to make up their own words because they made a typo. It originally came into being because of a typo. And it's not a real word. never will be.

da prblm is dat wrds r uslly usd to cmmunict 1 idea 2 nothr persn. txtn has faciltd this cmmunicatn. pwnd is actualy more of a wrd than most.

ex.
;alskdjf (yes this is used to censor words. but its understood as a bad word)
induhvidual
Fluid ( my personal fave):F;alskdjf look it up, I did
w8 wait


As a species we evolve, and so does our culture. That's why when i get home and tell my roomate "I need to defrag" or "I need to unplugg from meatspace!!" she knows exactly what I am saying, now am I gramatically correct? maybe not. But in communication abilities we don't get graded.

thnk gee oh dee!

[goodellboy]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Most people I know pronounce it "powned".

So, like "corn-poned" -- rhymes with "owned?" Thanks for the answer. (And just saw your clarifying edit -- thanks again.)

[goodellboy]

I'm a huge fan of slang. However, I believe that the writer should do enough work so that his or her readers don't have to do an excessive amount. Think of writing as a service to your readers.

The work to read that sentence with all the abbreviated words in it was nigh on excruciating for me.

[Alphapheemail]

Originally Posted by goodellboy

I'm a huge fan of slang. However, I believe that the writer should do enough work so that his or her readers don't have to do an excessive amount. Think of writing as a service to your readers.

The work to read that sentence with all the abbreviated words in it was nigh on excruciating for me.

You make a good point. Since I see it everyday, it's almost like a english dialiect. But you're right one should modify thier language in respect to thier target audience. But because one person does not understand what is said does not make the "language" invalid or non existant. The reality is that words like pwnd are here to stay since the internet community becomes larger and the "net lingo" is seeping into the "meat lingo". ( meat being real life)

[goodellboy]

Originally Posted by Alphapheemail

You make a good point. Since I see it everyday, it's almost like a english dialiect. But you're right one should modify thier language in respect to thier target audience. But because one person does not understand what is said does not make the "language" invalid or non existant. The reality is that words like pwnd are here to stay since the internet community becomes larger and the "net lingo" is seeping into the "meat lingo". ( meat being real life)

I've been curious about pwned since I first learned about it. Now that I've heard the offensive-language-filter circumvention story, I'm even starting to like the word. I love interesting word origins and evolutions, even when you have to guess which ones are true and which ones are apocryphal.

[Penforhire]

I mostly hear it as "powned," pronouncing the p. Yeah, groovy is probably a good example for the, ahem, older among us. "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!"

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by goodellboy

So, like "corn-poned" -- rhymes with "owned?" Thanks for the answer. (And just saw your clarifying edit -- thanks again.)

Yep, just like corn-poned!