In a small fraction of the content we include in our pages from Wikipedia and MusicBrainz –
specifically the names of artists, albums and tracks – there will be language that is offensive
to some members of the audience. Context is a key factor in whether we choose to display such
language in its original form, or to mask it by the use of asterisks. Our general principle is
to avoid exposing users to such content accidentally, but not to censor it unduly.
In specific terms, wherever an artist name appears in a programme tracklist, search result or
any other kind of aggregation we will mask it. However, where users have chosen to navigate to
an artist's page we feel it would be unnecessary and patronising to continue to mask the
offending words, for example within the text of a biography. Similarly, where there are
profanities in track names we will not display them in the context of tracklists for programmes
that play a variety of artists, but we do display them in album tracklists on a page for a
release or an album review, where someone viewing the page already has a general expectation of
tone based on the artist or artists involved, the genre, the album cover etc. And where there
are profanities in album names we will not display them in lists such as a set of links to
album reviews, but we will display them in artist discographies where, once again, users will
have a general expectation of the territory they are in.
By doing this, we feel we are applying a proportionate level of editorial control to avoid
offence to casual users, without undue censorship of objective facts which might offend the
common sense of other members of our audience.