I believe that in a linguistic forum all words should be spelled out if they are being discussed, even the derogatory epithet for a black-skinned person. But it's probably best to defer to the moderators.
I would agree with you if we were discussing the etymology, semantics, connotations, etc of these words in the
Linguistics forum. (I seem to recall that I put forward a similar thought in my early days in the forum.)
However,
this forum is intended to help learners and teachers of English of all ages and beliefs from all over the world. To very many people, certain words are very unpleasant. The sight of them in print is shocking beyond belief. Whatever some people might think privately of this, people who feel like this should not be deterred from visiting a forum on language for fear of being shocked. There are limits, of course - if they are shocked by the sight of such alternatives as 'the F-word' or 'f*ck' when there is genuine discussion of the use of such words, then that's just bad luck. I think it's worth putting up with an asterisk or two to keep the forum as accessible to as many people as possible.
ps. If you want to discuss this further, then this forum is not the place. If you are prepared to tolerate the asterisks, Then the
General Language Discussions is is probably the best forum. If the asterisks offend you, then I suppose the
Linguistics forum is the place for it. To start a discussion, please open the thread with a title such as 'Discussion of taboo words' to give a warning to those who might be offended - they can simply keep out.