Profound or just profane? Site tracks Twitter's 'WTF Level'

3 hrs.

Rosa Golijan , NBC News

The DEFCON system used by the United States monitors the cumulative?severity of national security?threats. In the social media world, the significantly less serious equivalent is the WTF Level meter.

The world's?WTF Level is tracked by an?eponymous site, which basically?monitors "the amount of swearing on Twitter at any given moment."?It does this by checking public tweets against a list of swear words. (This list is kept secret in order to prevent an?evil mastermind from?somehow?manipulating the world's WTF Level, but the folks behind the WTF level site assure us that they've got the basics ? such as George Carlin's "seven dirty words"???covered.)

The WTF Level listed on the site is constantly recalculated as tweets are totalled up every 10 seconds to determine the rate of foul language. While America's DEFCON system uses numbered levels, WTF Level goes with somewhat more blunt descriptions:?"Mostly Polite," "Mild Cursing," "Tirades," "Expletive-Laced," and "Oh &@#?@&!"

We're assuming that the?&@#?@& must hit the fan in order for the world to hit WTF Level "Oh &@#?@&!"

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/profound-or-just-profane-site-tracks-twitters-wtf-level-1C7127108

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