Are swearwords completely banned on Quora, or can I use them in an inoffensive, innocent manner (see details)?

Swearwords in general, no. See Nick Nicholas’ answer to Does Quora frown upon cussing in one’s answers?

Swearwords that violate current societal taboos about race, as opposed to older taboos about sex: yes. See for example BNBR violation against myself. by Habib Fanny on Sophokagathia

Swearwords that violate current societal taboos about sexuality: depends, but I would encourage you to err on the side of caution.

Quora’s answer to What is Quora’s “Be Nice, Be Respectful” policy? bans:

  • Racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, religious, political, ethnic, or other epithets directed against another contributor.

It also bans:

content or […] a tone that would be interpreted by a reasonable observer as a form of hate speech, particularly toward a race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, political group, sexual orientation or another similar characteristic.

On the other hand, it has a more draconian policy about racial invective:

Using any of the words on Wikipedia’s list of ethnic slurs is not allowed in questions, answers, or comments, unless the purpose is to ask a sincere question about the usage/background of the word.

So saying that a zebra called you a nigger would, per policy, be an automatic benburr. Saying that a zebra called you a faggot may not, and it would be less likely if (a) you are in fact gay, and (b) the moderator is not feeling robotic today. But context is going to matter in such a judgement call, and as Bodnick famously said, Moderation does not do content, let alone context.

Fuck is safe from BNBR sanction. Nigger is unsafe. Faggot from my reading of the policy could be either, but if the context is not clearly pro-gay (reasonable observer), it is likely unsafe.

I’m doubtful by the way that censor-asterisks would make much of a difference, but there’s no explicit policy formulation about that.

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