I have a hunch I'm not the only one who refuses to resort to inserting the "Instant Graemlins" in my posts. If I can't communicate the right sentiment with my words, I'd rather collect my thoughts a bit longer before paste in a sugar powered emoticon. Since they are WILDLY popular here, I may be opening myself up to some abuse, but I can't believe I'm the only one.

I don't think I'm a message board snob, purist or vigilante. I just know those googly-eyed glyphs are awfully distracting. Especially when there are 2, 3 or 4 in one post! Eeek!

I'm not an intolerant man, so I'd just ask for a little will power from you smiley addicts.

Anyone else with me??

ps> i was extra distressed to find the word 'smileys' had actually made it into dictionary.com's record of our lexicon. oy.

I find smileys helpful because subtle sarcasm--and sometimes overt--can be hard to detect without them. Imagine the reputation a poster might get if it weren't for a subtle winking smiley now and again to let us all know the last sentence was in jest...

Human communication is dependent upon facial expression along with verbal tools, so the smileys do serve a purpose. In the wrong hands, though, they become a tool for darkest evil.

SteveIN

[ May 15, 2002: Message edited by: SteveIN ]

[img]smile.gif[/img]

I like them but agree that some people go overboard. A can be a good way to let people know you're not serious and help diffuse potential conflict.

I personally like them for the same reason that STEVE stated. Sometimes my replys are a bit... Oh how shall we say this.... Tounge in cheek...

Heck I even have a hard time telling if I'm serious or not, so a little smiley at the end of the sentence is a good thing.

Oh ya, and besides, I post here at work, so the less time I take analyzing my own messages before I post them, then more time I have to read others posts.

I like them...they can give a posting a certain flair, and as Gay men, we can appreciate "flair."

I am not putting a smilie on this post, to respect the people on thisboard that do not like them...

Opps, sorry I slipped.

I have always hated smily faces and people who dot their I's with them, etc., etc., and was a purist and avoided them for the longest time on postings. I finally gave in (and I should add, "matured") because I realized that internet forums are a different medium from normal writing. People write fast and read fast, know some of the posters, not others. Forums are like e-mails, somewhere between the printed word and conversation. Emoticons make up for the missing facial expressions, and cover up mistakes due to unguarded, fast writing.

Hi,
My name is Mariner Duck Boy, and I'm a Smiley-holic

Sorry guys, I'm trying to recover.

Ouch Mariner... it burns... it burns!

[quote] Ouch Mariner... it burns... it burns!

---

From the text alone one would think you were serious.

By placing a simple after this statement, all readers would have known that you were typing this in Jest.

I can take 'em or leave 'em. The BF is an editor and hates 'em with a passion.

I smile a lot, even as I'm writing this, but people who don't know me might sometimes misinterpreted a light comment, joke or even criticism.

But this site is all good fun for me with or without a gremlin...seriously.

[quote]Originally posted by SteveIN:
I find smileys helpful because subtle sarcasm--and sometimes overt--can be hard to detect without them. Imagine the reputation a poster might get if it weren't for a subtle winking smiley now and again to let us all know the last sentence was in jest...

Human communication is dependent upon facial expression along with verbal tools, so the smileys do serve a purpose. In the wrong hands, though, they become a tool for darkest evil.

---

Exactly.

I like them alot myself.

Not overly partial to them but they do help getting sarcasm across without having to type (sarcasm) and plus it is fun to play around with them and joke with you fellow posters out there.

I wish we had a WIDER SELECTION of smilies. Some posters on this board, tzeile29 comes to mind, have been using some particularly cool and animated smilies. Isaw one post, but I forget the poster, that had a smilie whose jaw kept dropping the length of the entire computer screen!

More smilie options now!

Quote:

[quote] ...all readers would have known that you were typing this in Jest.

---

I thought he was typing it in Chicago.

See? Without the Smiley, you'd all think I was a blithering idiot! (Be nice, guys.)

Actually, Smiley was borne from the pen of Harvey Ball in 1963, as a means to boost company morale. I think Smiley looks pretty good for 39! I wonder if dear old Harvey gets a royalty everytime I ?

Vote “YES” on Smiley!

[quote]Originally posted by billsf:
I wish we had a WIDER SELECTION of smilies. ...More smilie options now!

---

YEAH! More smilie options! <----- mad as hell , but really only kidding. <----------HA HA what a dork!

Why would anyone not like smilies????
[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

[quote]I wish we had a WIDER SELECTION of smilies

---

Hello Billsf, how about this one.....



[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

[quote]Originally posted by rickinto:

---

Hmm rickinto, he looks like a "top". You're not discriminating against "bottoms" are you?

How can you tell he doesn't have an invisible top smiley behind him?

me?? discriminate??? not a chance



[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

Well, I appreciate everyone's take on the whole thing. The president of a company i once worked for actually sent around an email encouraging us to use emoticons in email communications, internal and external, so that we wouldn't offend someone with any mis-read humor. We all got a kick out of that. Raised our client relations to a whole new level of professionalism. Oy.

But now that you guys have brought custom smileys into the debate, I may actually succumb. I humbly submit the newest member to our family, Auntie Graemlin.

thats the spirit... Curtj !

[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: rickinto ]

Conservative curmedgeon that I am, I too avoided smileys for the longest time, but use them now and then to either punctuate a point or defuse any offense that might be taken if I make too strong a one. Actually, this board is the one place where I use them most, because I feel comfortable here. A couple of those just posted were pretty good, i.e., the mooner and the smiley lifting his belly. Is this evolving into a "gainer/encourager" forum???

i love a good pointless debate! it probably has something to do with my endless supply of pointless arguments....actually, wait!, yes, just as i thought, i feel one coming now!

i've never met a smiley that (who? no, definitely that) didn't annoy me. as for communication having lots of visual cues, we're talking written language, here. that's why we have punctuation and entire dictionaries full of perfectly good and nuanced words that never get used (a rose is a rose is a rose, but a flower is not a flower is not a flower!)

and i will admit that a (oxymoron alert!) well-placed smiley can serve to point up sarcasm or when one is being tongue-in-cheek, but i've read Noel Coward cover to cover -- MR. Tongue in Cheek, if you will -- and there wasn't a single smiley on a single page of one single play of his. and i doubt any of his plays would have been any better had they been smiley adorned.

in short (i know, i know -- too late!) Auntie Graemlin would be my favorite relative.

Naaah, thersis. When you read Noel Coward you're ready, you have the time, etc. And Noel Coward's stuff is actually best with music, and on stage.
I still insist that this quick Internet communication, e-mails and forums, is not traditional "written language", it's something new.
But what inspired me to write is your misquote "a rose is a rose is a rose", which GS never said (or wrote?). What she said was "Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a..." around the page in a children's book written for her favorite little girl named Rose. Perhaps if GS had used a smiley people wouldn't have read all this deep stuff into a playful bit of humor.
<edited to change the choice of smiley>

[ May 17, 2002: Message edited by: Tom ]

good god, man, who do you take me for, Doris Kearns Goodwin? to quote without attribution is to plaigirize! i searched and searched and searched again all over my post and found neither quotes nor citations. the lack of the latter could imply plaigirism, but no, the lack of the former dictates mere literary allusion. to maintain parallel construction i'd have had to write "flower is a flower is a..." and that is senseless. so i didn't quote ms stein, but changed her quote into an allusion. (sorry for all this but gs is a favorite of mine and to be accused of misquoting her hit a nerve. oh, and by the way, she got along just fine without smileys, too!)

Poor misguided Doris Kearns Goodwin. And a baseball fan she was too. I guess money is money. Or is it a money is a money?
Every time I go to Paris I stand in front of the plaque that commemorates GS and Alice. I am a fan too, and I would like to think that she would have used smileys too had she known them.

Remember when the internet and email usage was young and everyone used the colon and parentheses now THAT was annoying !

I have a smiley face air freshener hanging in my car; when I'm in a bad mood that thing does NOT put me in a good one !!

p.s.

I will for a moment imagine that I am Scully, with the topic in question being broached by Mulder, and thereby state, "So what you're saying is, you use these little smiley things to illustrate sarcasm and defuse conflict? Is that what you're telling me?"

Silliness is an art; one which we all seem to undervalue once (we think) we've grown up... ergo, Bring On the Smileys!

hey i just had to post this one...sorry about bring an old thread back to life, but I thought you guys would get a kick out of this smiley!