[kenberg]

Another childhood story, perhaps relevant.

I grew up in a modest but good neighborhood. The garage out back had a pit for working on cars. This became quite a gathering spot for my teenage friends. OK, you have a bunch of adolescent males working on their cars. And talking.

After w while the guy next door came over to talk to me. He explained that the language was distressing to some of the neighbors and mentioned that in particular some neighbors had growing daughters and the parents were not happy. I took this seriously and made a colorful sign forbidding foul language. Of course the first thing that happened was Billy saw the sign and said something like "Who the &*&& put up this *^&^ sign?". I explained that I put it up and it was serious, if he wanted to continue working on his car in the garage he would accept this. He did.

Everything is simpler in a community where everyone knows each other. But think of BBO as my garage. No one was going to blow up Billy's head but it was my (well, my father's) garage so I set the rules. I don't much care if someone wants to call himself a wank. I don't understand it, but it's him, not me. But, also, in this case I don't own the garage. I am more than happy to let whoever is in charge make the choices that they make.

[barmar]

It's probably because the site is mostly run by Americans, and they didn't make the derogatory association (the word is mostly used in the UK) when wank first showed up.