Austrian town to be re-named

[harry_monk]

Photo and story taken from Daily Mirror.

Austrians considering renaming their village from ■■■■■■■ to Fugging have been told to think again — because the name is already taken.

Villagers at ■■■■■■■ in Upper Austria voted yesterday to change the name to Fugging. But then came the news that there used to be a second village with the name ■■■■■■■ in Austria — and residents there had already bagged the name Fugging more than 100 years ago.

Fugging mayor Andreas Dockner - 200 miles away in Lower Austria - said: "Nobody alive now remembers why it was changed from ■■■■■■■ to Fugging, but it was and that is now our name. We think one Fugging in Austria is enough.

"The first mention of our village as ■■■■■■■ was was in 1195 where it was recorded in the records of the local monastery. By 1836 it was Fugging.

“I can’t say whether the decision to change the name from ■■■■■■■ to Fugging was anything to do with embarrassment at its meaning in English but the word ■■■■■■■ has been around for a long while. We are certainly a lot closer to Vienna which was the centre of the Habsburg Empire at the time, and they probably would have been a lot more English visitors there that might have raised the matter.”

Historians confirmed that the first known use of the verb in the context of having ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■ was in 1475, and it has also been found in a dictionary from 1598 - it even turning up in one of Shakespeare’s plays when it is mentioned in Henry V.

■■■■■■■ mayor Franz Meindl said that apart from the name their tiny village with just over 100 residents would be a rural paradise. He said: “It is beautiful countryside here, it’s otherwise peaceful and we have a good community. It’s only ever the name that causes us troubles.”

After the decision to change the name to Fugging one resident in ■■■■■■■ had already painted out a sign, and added the double G instead of the CK — but that was a move too soon according to the Mayor of Fugging.

He said: “We are very proud of our name. But it is our name now.”

■■■■■■■ residents said the final straw was a growing number of calls by pranksters from abroad who ring up locals and ask in English “Is That ■■■■■■■” - before bursting into laughter and hanging up.

“The phone calls are really the final straw”, said ■■■■■■■ Mayor Meindl, who confirmed that the villages street signs were regularly stolen - even though they had been welded on steel posts set in concrete in the ground.

Drivers heading into the village often disturbed naked couples romping in front of the signs, and local entrepreneurs made the situation worse by flogging off ■■■■■■■ postcards - ■■■■■■■ Christmas cards and even more recently a ■■■■■■■ beer.

Residents last voted on the subject in 1996 when it decided to keep the name despite problems caused by American servicemen from across the border in Germany that drove to the region just to be photographed in front of signs. They then sent the snaps back home to their girlfriends and wives.

Fugging mayor Dockner added: “If our village was called ■■■■■■■, I don’t think it would be a problem — we are proud of it and I’m sure we wouldn’t change the name — I’d advise ■■■■■■■ not to change anything.”

If the name change does go ahead there will still be plenty to amuse the pranksters when ■■■■■■■ vanishes.

Also available on the online Austrian telephone book are the villages of “Oberfucking” “Windpassing”, “■■■■■■■■ and “Rottenegg”.

[r_slicker]

[zb] em lol

[simon]

I think they’re [zb]ed then

[harry_monk]

Dave, that is fantastic photoshopping, perhaps we should email them that sign suggesting ■■■■■■■ as the new name for their ■■■■■■■ village!

[gbpub]

dieseldave, come on there really was no need to pander to the nanny state by censoring an actual town name sign. Admin power crazy censorship gone barmy and way over the top, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

[dieseldave]

GBPub:
dieseldave, come on there really was no need to pander to the nanny state by censoring an actual town name sign. Admin power crazy censorship gone barmy and way over the top, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Hi GBPub,

That’s your opinion, and IMHO you’re entitled to it.

The TN website owners have rules (they’re entitled to that) and those rules don’t allow certain words, so a word which would be caught by the auto censor has to be edited regardless of whether it’s a deliberate auto censor dodge or it’s contained in a picture.

A reverse comment (that a poster would also be entitled to) would also have to be considered…
The moderation on here is crap etc, etc… certain people allowed to get away with stuff, which has all been posted in the Feedback Forum at some point. On balance, I think I made a fair call and dealt with it in a T.I.C. way when I could have been heavy-handed and simply removed the whole post.

IMHO, you’ve made a fair point though, but it’s one that might be better being discussed in the Feedback Forum.

[harry_monk]

Playing Devil’s Advocate, perhaps we should go back to the days when you couldn’t mention Scunthorpe or Terry Wogan…

But seriously, I’m not complaining, I quite like the new sign. And I tend to follow the theory that “The moderator may not always be right, but he is always the moderator”.

[wilko]

I once went through a place in Germany or maybe Austria that rhymed with Bank

Where they got the name from eludes me

[doyoumeanme_1]

The two posts above weren’t showing when I posted. They sum it up.

[harry_monk]

■■■■■■■ residents said the final straw was a growing number of calls by pranksters from abroad who ring up locals and ask in English “Is That ■■■■■■■” - before bursting into laughter and hanging up.

“The phone calls are really the final straw”, said ■■■■■■■ Mayor Meindl

No sense of humour, these people!

[fileep]

dieseldave:

GBPub:
dieseldave, come on there really was no need to pander to the nanny state by censoring an actual town name sign. Admin power crazy censorship gone barmy and way over the top, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Hi GBPub,

That’s your opinion, and IMHO you’re entitled to it.

The TN website owners have rules (they’re entitled to that) and those rules don’t allow certain words, so a word which would be caught by the auto censor has to be edited regardless of whether it’s a deliberate auto censor dodge or it’s contained in a picture.

A reverse comment (that a poster would also be entitled to) would also have to be considered…
The moderation on here is crap etc, etc… certain people allowed to get away with stuff, which has all been posted in the Feedback Forum at some point. On balance, I think I made a fair call and dealt with it in a T.I.C. way when I could have been heavy-handed and simply removed the whole post.

IMHO, you’ve made a fair point though, but it’s one that might be better being discussed in the Feedback Forum.

Pathetic How can an actual place names be censored? I think you should use the rules in context. If a member on here wanted to find directions to this place how would he post it? I have seen racist & homophobic remarks on this forum, both of which are illegal yet remain intact! Lets be sensible for the sake of ■■■■■■■

[dieseldave]

Fileep:

dieseldave:

GBPub:
dieseldave, come on there really was no need to pander to the nanny state by censoring an actual town name sign. Admin power crazy censorship gone barmy and way over the top, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Hi GBPub,

That’s your opinion, and IMHO you’re entitled to it.

The TN website owners have rules (they’re entitled to that) and those rules don’t allow certain words, so a word which would be caught by the auto censor has to be edited regardless of whether it’s a deliberate auto censor dodge or it’s contained in a picture.

A reverse comment (that a poster would also be entitled to) would also have to be considered…
The moderation on here is crap etc, etc… certain people allowed to get away with stuff, which has all been posted in the Feedback Forum at some point. On balance, I think I made a fair call and dealt with it in a T.I.C. way when I could have been heavy-handed and simply removed the whole post.

IMHO, you’ve made a fair point though, but it’s one that might be better being discussed in the Feedback Forum.

Pathetic How can an actual place names be censored? I think you should use the rules in context. If a member on here wanted to find directions to this place how would he post it?

Hi Fileep,
Thr member would notice that the word would be caught by the auto censor as being a word that the TN website owners have decided is banned.
Whether it’s the name of a town, or even a name that somebody calls their dog, makes no difference because it’s the word that’s banned.
The same rule applies to a banned word contained in a picture.

Fileep:
I have seen racist & homophobic remarks on this forum, both of which are illegal yet remain intact! Lets be sensible for the sake of [zb]

I’ve seen that too and removed them under rule #3 when I do, but it’s simply not possible to read every post, hence the ‘report’ button for when anybody sees something offensive.

Everything being discussed here is in the forum rules, which everybody has electronically agreed to.
Any discussion of changing the rules is a separate subject probably best discussed in the Feedback forum.

[harry_monk]

Perhaps this thread could be moved to the Feedback Forum now? In truth, there is very little chance of any of us going to this bucolic paradise of a hundred or so souls, and I was, to a degree, “flying a kite” when I posted the thread, as I thought the story would amuse fellow TruckNetters.

It would be worth pointing out that the word in question is a village name, and does not have any attendant ■■■■■■ context. Also that the Daily Mirror, as mainstream a newspaper as it is possible to imagine, with no age limit for purchase saw fit to repeatedly publish the village name without even using the asterisks normally used to replace vowels in this word when it is used in a ■■■■■■ context.

It’s a matter worthy of further discussion I feel, so let’s check out the views of folk in the Feedback Forum!

[orys]

I really like this picture that was deleted from that forum by the mods (i never knew that posting pictures of completely real road sings is banned here). There is the village name, then there is “children” sign underneath and another saying “nicht zu schnell”