Image what "This piece of software is fucking useless" would sound like if it was read out by Stephen Hawking's speech yoke, 'fuck' doesn't emphasize anything, the inflections and tone of your voice do. A charismatic person could convey far more emotion by dramatically saying "This piece of software...it's useless! It's...useless!!" than a dull person who says 'fuck' with a monotone voice would.

It adds nothing.

And a charismatic person who used the word "fuck", would he convey less than the same person avoiding using the word?

You can replace it with descriptive words:

"This piece of software is as useful as wings on Shamu"

"This piece of software makes me want to skewer needles up my thumbs for a relaxing break."

etc. There is value in shock. The problem with profanity is that it it only shocks whoever is not used to reading it (and in public writing it's hard to tell who is and who is not).

I am unconvinced.

Whales like to jump, surely Shamu would rather like to have wings, and the second is a great deal more distressing to me than just a silly little word could possibly be. I don't think either of these are an improvement upon the first at all.

Judging by this entire tizzy HN has worked itself into, I'd say profanity doesn't run the risk of running out of "shock potential" anytime soon.

It'll shock people, but it's still a cheap shock. The 2 example the grandfather post gave weren't great, but I think that in itself is the issue--coming up with effective emotional charged speech without using profanity is difficult, but completely possible. It takes work! And I think that is what a lot of people here are saying--cussing is cheap and lazy. And so it's offensive not because the actual words are offensive, but because the writer is clearly not putting any effort into their writing.

I still do not understand how this argument works. Why is it that people only seem to be offended at mediocre vocabulary when 'profanity' is involved? If, as you state, emotionally charged speech without profanity is difficult, why should we become offended when people are unable to achieve it? I don't think anybody goes to technical talks to appreciate high grade word-smithing.

I honestly believe this is an instance of generally rational people becoming offended for a reason they don't quite understand, and inventing a theory to explain the data.

I'd start with just leaving the word out. "This piece of software is useless." will most likely convey your point. Perhaps, if you wished to ramp up the emphasis, you could say that "this piece of software is totally useless." I also like the word "profoundly" for extra emphasis.

Downvoters: I was trying to point out that inflection and delivery can be more effective than swear words.