Subject: there are still reasons it's avoided
Author:
Posted on: 2009-04-06 11:27:00 UTC
Whether it causes offence or not isn't quite the point. It's more that there's a mutual unspoken agreement to limit swearing, particularly in subject lines. Partly it's for the look of the thing - we give a better impression to newbies and strangers if we're using language that's appropriate for any register, whereas if we're effing and blinding all over the place it makes us appear more insular and less accessible. And partly it's because, while we all have the dislike of badfic in common, there's plenty about each other we don't all know, and tolerance for expletives is included in that, and so swearing's kept minimal so as not to offend or alienate those who don't like it.
Now glaurunging, on the other hand, that's an excellent example of language promoting ingrouping. It helps with a sense of identity, and so is permissible in subject lines.
There you go, there's my two cents as a linguist. And, if it helps, I don't consider crap foul language either; most of what I say out loud is pure Anglo-Saxon. It's just that there's a time and a place, and subject lines aren't it.