General Settings
The General Settings tab is the main configuration screen. It is at WB Plugins > BuddyPress Profanity > General Settings.
All settings here are stored in a single WordPress option: wbbprof_settings.
Blocked Keywords
Section titled “Blocked Keywords”Option key: wbbprof_settings[keywords]
A comma-separated list of words the plugin will mask wherever they appear in filtered content. Keywords are trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace. Any keyword shorter than three characters is ignored at filter time.
Reset to Default replaces the entire list with the plugin’s built-in default word list via an AJAX request. A confirmation dialog appears before the reset runs.
For large lists, use the Bulk Save tab — it provides a full textarea.
Filter Scope
Section titled “Filter Scope”Option key: wbbprof_settings[filter_contents] (array)
Checkboxes controlling which content types are subject to filtering. The plugin only processes content types that are checked here.
| Value | Content filtered |
|---|---|
status_updates |
BuddyPress activity stream posts |
activity_comments |
Comments on activity posts |
messages |
BuddyPress private message content and subject lines |
bbpress_title |
bbPress forum, topic, and reply titles (only shown when bbPress is active) |
bbpress_content |
bbPress forum, topic, and reply body content (only shown when bbPress is active) |
If no checkboxes are checked, the plugin loads but filters nothing. The Overview tab will show a warning in this case.
Word Rendering
Section titled “Word Rendering”Option key: wbbprof_settings[word_render]
Controls how many characters of a blocked word remain visible after masking. The replacement character is set separately in Filter Character.
| Value | Label | Example (blog masked with *) |
|---|---|---|
first |
First letter retained | b*** |
last |
Last letter retained | ***g |
first_last |
First and last letter retained | b**g |
all |
All letters removed | **** |
Default at installation: first_last.
Filter Character
Section titled “Filter Character”Option key: wbbprof_settings[character]
The symbol used to replace masked letters. Applies to both word masking and privacy masking.
| Value | Character |
|---|---|
asterisk |
* |
dollar |
$ |
question |
? |
exclamation |
! |
hyphen |
- |
hash |
# |
tilde |
~ |
blank |
space |
Default at installation: asterisk.
To add a custom character option, see the wbbprof_word_rendering_symbols and wbbprof_custom_character hooks.
Case Matching
Section titled “Case Matching”Option key: wbbprof_settings[case]
Controls whether keyword matching is case-sensitive.
| Value | Behaviour |
|---|---|
incase |
Case insensitive — Blog, BLOG, and blog all match the keyword blog (recommended) |
case |
Case sensitive — only exact case matches are filtered |
Default at installation: incase.
Strict Filtering
Section titled “Strict Filtering”Option key: wbbprof_settings[strict_filter]
Controls whether keywords embedded inside larger words are also filtered.
Important: The stored values are inverted from what the labels say. This is a legacy data shape preserved for backwards compatibility.
| Stored value | Behaviour | Label in UI |
|---|---|---|
off |
Strict filtering ON — embedded keywords are filtered | “Strict Filtering ON (recommended)” |
on |
Strict filtering OFF — only standalone whole words are filtered | “Strict Filtering OFF” |
With strict filtering ON (off stored): if ass is a blocked keyword, the word passable becomes p***able.
With strict filtering OFF (on stored): passable is left unchanged; only the standalone word ass would be filtered.
Default at installation: on (strict OFF).
Privacy Masking
Section titled “Privacy Masking”Mask Email Addresses
Section titled “Mask Email Addresses”Option key: wbbprof_settings[mask_emails]
When checked (on), the plugin detects email addresses in filtered content and masks the username and domain name portions, leaving the TLD visible. Example: user@example.com becomes u***r@e******.com.
The filter only applies to plain text segments of the content — email addresses inside HTML tag attributes are not touched.
Mask Phone Numbers
Section titled “Mask Phone Numbers”Option key: wbbprof_settings[mask_phones]
When checked (on), the plugin detects phone numbers and masks the middle digits, keeping the first digit and the last two. The formatting characters (spaces, hyphens, parentheses) are preserved in the output.
Detected formats include international (+1-123-456-7890), US parenthetical ((123) 456-7890), plain 10-digit, and 00-prefixed international numbers.
As with email masking, only plain text segments are processed — numbers inside HTML attributes are not touched.
Both options default to on at installation.
Saving settings
Section titled “Saving settings”Click Save Changes at the bottom of the form. The page reloads with a confirmation message. All settings take effect on the next page load.