(age: 19)
Swearing can (in my observations) tend to produce uninformative conversations if it is used or (forbid) encouraged. I'm thinking of the difference between:
"This thing is a %&@#%!!!"
And the alternatives of:
"This thing doesn't put out enough light to stub my toe with!" or "It's so flimsy I could cut it apart with a laser
pointer!"
One tells you nothing but someone's vague dissatisfaction, where as the others at least identify the problem.
Due to the rather obscure topic, this board is probably not ever going to turn into a flame forum like certain newsgroups, but I still wouldn't like to have to comb through a bunch of one line posts to find the content.
I think that the board is probably fine as it is, without an actual policy one way or the other. I enjoy the way people are keeping themselves in hand now, and opening it up as a possibility sounds like a dangerous thing.
Since most of the people here seem to be mature, thinking people, I'd feel silly saying they shouldn't be allowed to cuss, and a jerk will probably be a jerk in any language. Frankly though, I'd rather feel a little silly than have to deal with a lot of cussing. Vulgarity is easy to come by, intelligent discussions about flashlights aren't.
One marker might be that if no one has complained about not feeling free to curse so far, then it probably isn't a problem and the situation is best left as it stands.