One of the quirky features of Eudora 5.1 that endears the program to
me is Mood Watch, which is intended to monitor offensive text in both
incoming and outgoing messages. You can display the new Mood Watch
options dialog to set Mood Watch settings.
I generally take a dim view of censorware, but Mood Watch is
unobtrusive, causes no hassle or inconvenience, can be turned off if
you wish, and can be amusing. One of its aspects that I get the
greatest kick out of is that probably 90% percent of the non-spam
messages (can there really be that many guys out there worried about
the size of their "package?") I receive that get flagged with Mood
Watch "chili peppers" come from Christian email lists I'm on.
Mood Watch is intended to warn users about flame content in incoming
and outgoing emails. A feature of Eudora since version 5.0, Mood Watch
warns users if they are writing a flame or if they are being flamed (as
if that were not obvious in either case). Mood Watch scans outgoing and
incoming email messages for potentially offensive language and
graphically flags the level of "heat" with one, two, or three chili
peppers. As noted, Mood Watch can be turned off if the user so chooses.
The feature will also warn users if they click "send" on a potentially
offensive message to give them a chance to reconsider. Users can set
one of three different degrees of sensitivity that will trigger these
warning messages or turn the warnings off altogether while still using
the Mood Watch feature to give chili ratings to incoming and outgoing
emails.
Fellow Nova Scotian columnist Harry Bruce last week wrote an
entertaining screed about Mood Watch for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald
entitled "Big Brother lives inside my computer."
Harry, who is a philosophical liberal, takes a dimmer view of Mood
Watch than I do. "I have discovered," says Harry, "that the software
that transmits my e-mail, Version 5.1 of Eudora, is an offensive
prig."
"Eudora is a prude," he continues, "and I'll thank her to mind her
own prissy business. In a letter I wrote to my son Alec in Moncton, I
used the most common of all the swearwords for excrement, the one that
rhymes with 'split,' but when I tried to transmit the note by e-mail,
Eudora slapped my wrist....
"I felt as though I were back in Grade 5, and the huge Miss Eudora
Watt was about to give me the strap for shouting disgusting words
during recess."
Harry continues, "The warning box at least offered choices. Rather
than 'Cancel,' I Clicked 'Send Anyway,' and because Eudora's attitude
really urinated me off,"
Turning off Mood Watch is of course the proper thing to do if it
annoys you.
Mood Watch is based on rhetorical theories developed by David Kaufer, chairman of the
English department of Carnegie Mellon
University, employs a very fast and efficient algorithm to identify
words and phrases that might be offensive. As such, it's efficient at
flagging potentially offensive messages, but it is up to the user to
decide if a message "deserves the chilies."
More information on the Mood Watch feature of Eudora 5.0 email
software can be found at: http://www.eudora.com/email/features/moodwatch.html
Mood Watch is fun to experiment with, and I have tried typing
various words into a new message document to see just what words the
program would flag. A sampling of words that conjured up three chili
peppers were the expression commonly abbreviated "SOB," the
quintessential f-word, "asshole" (which Eudora's spell checker did not
recognize, but Mood Watch did), and even idiot, as well as various
potty-language terms.
On the other hand, pig face, jerk, and nitwit sailed through without
raising a single chili pepper, as did turkey and damn.
Vagina and penis separately raised, if you will pardon the
expression, no peppers, but when they appeared together two peppers
appeared. The scatological slang references to vagina and penis both
were flagged with three peppers, even though the male-related word has
perfectly polite uses in reference to a male fowl or to the act of
preparing a firearm for discharge.
I also screened the archive messages I have on file in Eudora and
discovered that a few of my correspondents are prone to use somewhat
salty language, at least in Eudora's opinion, although nothing I would
deem abusive. The weirdest discovery was that a message entirely in
Norwegian was flagged with three chili peppers. No, I have no idea what
it said.
While entertaining to play with, Mood Watch is a good example of the
basic uselessness of censorware. However, it is good for a few smiles
at least.
You can download a copy of Eudora 5.1 from http://www.eudora.com.
