Motoring Discussion > Browsing Autotrader Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 44

 Browsing Autotrader - Falkirk Bairn
Browsing Autotrader from a Nationwide dealer I saw car that might replace my nearly 7 year old CRV EX auto - perfectly reliable in all the time I have had it but I feel like a change.

It was some 150 miles away so I thought I'd phone - I asked about trade-in & they went through about 20 questions -

Mileage Understandable

Service history - Is that full Honda Service, when was last service. I said it was stamped & all receipts. What repairs have been done - none! They did not really believe me.

MoT was clear but only 3 months left - they said they did not want to trade-in with less than 3 months. I said I do an annual MoT as required.

Condition - I said immaculate - they then asked about scratches, dents etc etc - I said it's almost new but for maybe 5/6 stone chips! Are the wheels kerbed - again I said immaculate with new tyres & only 5K miles on them.

Then grilled on Finance - I said I paid cash - are there any loans on it? I paid cash.
How will you pay for the new car? Cash or rather debit card.

They then offered their price, subject to seeing it - fair enough - reasonable T/I figure

I then asked about the car for sale.
Is it serviced (14 mths old) YES!
I asked when 3rd July?
I asked where? Joe Bloggs garage.

I said not interested as it had broken the 12 mth service by 2 months & not a Franchised dealer. I said I was not interested & rang of.

Sales Manager on the phone in 5 mins - we will indemnify any shortfall in warranty coverage.
I said not interested - Nth degree on my 1 owner immaculate car & they were hiding a not so perfect history.

5 minutes phone goes again & I pressed the red button.

Good job I did not drive the 150 miles to see it as was my plan for tomorrow.
 Browsing Autotrader - Netsur
Are we surprised?

Presumably the car was for sale at a dealer which was not the same brand? Not sure I would buy such a new car from a dealer of a different brand.
 Browsing Autotrader - MD
They are car s******s, not dealers. I've yet to find one that could lie straight in bed.
 Browsing Autotrader - MD
Why does the word "s******'s" get starred out?
 Browsing Autotrader - MD
s tealers!
 Browsing Autotrader - Bobby
You sleep with a salesperson before buying a car??
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
>> They are car s******s, not dealers. I've yet to find one that could lie straight in bed.

Like some builders I guess ;) Good ones and bad ones.

ps, I'll leave Mark to explain why that particular word is in the swear filter, if he can be

a) bothered
b) can remember

It stems back to HJ days when he added it to the filter.
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
1) It was me.
2) I can remember.
3) I can just about be bothered.

.*******

But in those days I had the button. These days I simply get irritated by them.

Remember, in those days we were leading edge. The software was the best around, there simply was no other similar website/forum and we were not only doing it better than everybody else, we were doing it first.

But nothing will ever beat the phantom button. Were you there Dave, or was that even before your time?

Edit: but I can't be a***d to type it twice. The swear filter was one thing we did not get right. It has two, you see. Or at least it is used in two different ways. That's the real reason it sometimes deletes a paragraph and other times merely substitutes a word.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 15 Jul 19 at 20:35
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
But the war over swearing was quite incredible. People insisting that it was an infringement of their human rights, freedom of speech, nanny state etc. etc.

Quite unbelievable with no possibility of self-restraint. Hence the draconian swear filter. Not only did it keep all the bad words out, we used it as a scapegoat. As in "Not my fault, sunshine, it's the swear filter".

As I'm sure Dave remembers, it was stormy times for a moderator.
 Browsing Autotrader - bathtub tom
Not a job anyone would want. Remember Oil Rag?
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
There were some absolutely hateful people, and a never ending supply of what are now known as trolls. He was just one of many. We didn't know anything about that s*** when we started because the whole genre and range of attention seeking keyboard warriors had never existed before.

Additionally we didn't always deal with stuff perfectly ourselves, which of course made even more work.

But hey, it was very successful in the end and rewarding to look back at.
 Browsing Autotrader - Bobby
Remember the forum disappeared? That’s how this place came about isn’t it?

Did HJ just pull the plug?
 Browsing Autotrader - Fullchat
I believe the site was down for a short time whilst it had a makeover. Still going strong.
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
>>Did HJ just pull the plug?

After my time.
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
>> But nothing will ever beat the phantom button. Were you there Dave, or was that even before your time?

Before my time. Must have been when you and the other Dave were doing it, and quite possibly Martyn.

>> The swear filter was one thing we did not get right. It has two, you see. Or at least it is
>> used in two different ways. That's the real reason it sometimes deletes a paragraph and other times merely substitutes a word.

It still does. Mild expletives just get the ******, but the more serious ones get the whole paragraph wiped and replaced with .****** instead. The reasoning for it IIRC was an attempt to stop the dedicated hardcore potty mouths from bothering typing it all out again.

>> As I'm sure Dave remembers, it was stormy times for a moderator.

Yes. Some took more flack than others, depending on the idiot(s) we had to deal with.

Oilrag was just mentioned by someone. IIRC he was one of the good guys who eventually was enrolled as a moderator, but just couldn't handle the pressure.

>> Did HJ just pull the plug?

No, he brought in new website developers, who made a right old balls up of it at the start. I ended up having a personality clash with one of them and quit because of it. The site went off line for a couple of weeks while they tried sorting it all out. This platform was still in cyberspace so Stephen kindly reopened it for people to continue to use. There were plans to redevelop and add other features to this site, but unfortunately other things took preference and Stephen just didn't have the time.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 02:42
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
>> The reasoning for it IIRC was an attempt to stop the dedicated hardcore potty mouths from bothering typing it all out again.

No, that was the excuse we used because we were too busy to really care about it at the time and it wasn't broken in any way we cared about. Just made the gits be more careful.

I'll let you into a little secret. Try this....

Type... [When you type, in both cases substitute the 4-letter f word for xxxx ]

xxxx this is hard

And then type...

Oh xxxx this is hard

Now either preview or post the note you have written. What difference do you see?

Now why do you suppose that is?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 03:16
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
You will get the following result...

f*** this is hard

.*******

In both cases the F word is being filtered out. The different behaviour is *not* related to the word.

Yet the C word will only ever have the word starred out, never the paragraph. The p word for urinate will behave the same way as the F word.You think there is different logic and that it depends on the word because some words are rarely used at the beginning of a paragraph.

But you're quite wrong.

And of course the swear filter can be bypassed entirely very easily. But even I very rarely do that.

But quite possibly Stephen coded the first ever forum swear filter anywhere, because certainly nobody else had one. So one shouldn't be critical.

Like I said, in it's day, the software was leading edge. As was the forum moderation style.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 03:31
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
>> Yet the C word will only ever have the word starred out, never the paragraph.

Took me quite a while to get the swear filter to still work when the C word is used, but not when the North Lincolnshire town is used.

End of the day though, it's just a dumb filter and doesn't always know the difference between a swear word and a normal word that contains swearing in it. If anyone could code such a thing to have a degree of intelligence would be quite possibly a genius.
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
I assume you eventually put the c word in with leading and trailing blanks?

 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
I can’t remember what I did without looking.
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
>Oilrag was just mentioned by someone. IIRC he was one of the good guys who eventually was enrolled as a moderator,

I think you're right.
 Browsing Autotrader - Duncan
Wasn't there also something about the way some people spelt Halfords?

H******** - no?

Edit

There you go!

If you turn the second part of the name into frauds, it gets starred out!
Last edited by: Duncan on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 05:37
 Browsing Autotrader - Bromptonaut
>> I think you're right.

I don't know if Oilrag was a Mod but he posted interesting stuff. Seem to remember some links to pics with bits of cars and invitation to name the vehicle and location. One involved a War grave site in N France.
 Browsing Autotrader - helicopter
I just wanted to see what happened if I mention Scunthorpe...
 Browsing Autotrader - MD
Well I didn't put it in there for sure:-)
 Browsing Autotrader - neiltoo
>> Scunthorpe

I've done this before, but what about Penistone or Cockermouth........
 Browsing Autotrader - Zero
Or t***t in Orkney

You can tell its a slow news day.

EDIT

OH! T waTT is not allowed! Poor T waTTIANS of Orkney, they are non persons.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 11:26
 Browsing Autotrader - R.P.
Penisarwaen - village near where I lived.
 Browsing Autotrader - Bromptonaut
Yay, we can get the Underground from Cockfosters
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 13:25
 Browsing Autotrader - Avant
On HJ our swear filter kicks in if anyone mentions the football team that used to be managed by Mr Wenger. Let's try it here:

A***nal.

Thought so! It now looks even worse.
Last edited by: Avant on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 16:22
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
Needs a whiltelist as well as a blacklist.

Can you use HTML commands on HJ?
 Browsing Autotrader - bathtub tom
Neither site likes the word for quarter of an old penny.
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
Farthing.

Where's the problem?

Mind you, you can also say fart on this site.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 18:00
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
It doesn't take very much to amuse you lot, does it?

We've had similar discussions on HJ many years ago about the capabilities and foibles of the swear filter, FFS ;)
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
I didn't realise we were only allowed to discuss something once. Better shut the site down I guess.
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
Nah. Where would we be without groundhogs?
 Browsing Autotrader - VxFan
>> I don't know if Oilrag was a Mod

He was, briefly. Didn't last long though.
 Browsing Autotrader - MD
This is the best thread for yonks:-)
 Browsing Autotrader - helicopter
Talking of being amused, on a local industrial estate in Horsham we have a shipping company called Freight Forwarding Solutions.
All their transport has the logo FFS in large letters....

....well it always amuses me. I just wonder which came first, the company or the acronym.
Last edited by: helicopter on Wed 17 Jul 19 at 17:22
 Browsing Autotrader - R.P.
Bit like Boris....as in FFS (Former Foreign Secretary) Boris !
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
>> I just wonder which came first, the company or the acronym.

Company registered in 2015
 Browsing Autotrader - bathtub tom
I was told a tale (may be apocryphal) about a foreign, English language college using the acronym FIST for something like First In Science & Technology. Signs went up urging potential students to become fisters...............................................................
.................
 Browsing Autotrader - helicopter
Just looked and according to Companies House ,FFS Ltd was incorporated in May 2007.So would FFS have been in common usage then?
 Browsing Autotrader - Robin O'Reliant
>> Just looked and according to Companies House ,FFS Ltd was incorporated in May 2007.So
>> would FFS have been in common usage then?
>>

I first heard it in about from my old man in about 1964 when a copper on a sit up and beg followed me home one night after I tried to outrun him when he caught me cycling without lights.

Or to be strictly accurate, it was FFS fallowed by "Wallop".
 Browsing Autotrader - No FM2R
Turns out there are many many companies called FFS. Who knew?
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