When you're smiling...

They can certainly be overdone, as you've just demonstrated

I think of them as an enhancement, rather than a substitute. When something could be taken the wrong way, an emoticon helps. :nod:

 

I'm running Adblock (which also can block out graphics). I use it to block out all smilies from every board I'm on. If I'm curious about a smilie somebody uses, I hit "reply" (without actually replying) and that gives me the name of said smilie.

 

i like smiles, i wish my email had them, i'm stuck with or :-{)
i like guessing exactly what people were thinking with their choice of emoticon.

 

Then you probably have a real problem when it comes to Egyptian and Mayan writings Huh Bra...

Not to mention the different characters they have in far eastern writings...

Must sorta suck for you when you go to the museum or if you are considering traveling to Machu Picchu...

I am on the opposite side of the fence... I love the little animations and emoticons to express what limited thoughts are in the printed word.

 

Life without ?

How

 

Do you move your hands and use facial expressions when talking? Doing this makes it a *lot* easier for people to understand your tone and intentions. Formal writing requires more words and structure to convey the same information.

When I write formally I am very formal. When I talk I am less formal, but more so than most. Internet posting is a form of informal communication. In this respect I don't mind smilies if they help explain the tone of a message. I don't care for them if they are used for mere eye candy (called "dancing bologna" in the web development world.)

Tom

 

edit: edit:

Smilie with an eraser...it's missing from the list

 

More 'less formal' than most?

See, if you'd used a smiley - pardon my netiquette; of course I meant to use the proper term, which is 'emoticon' - we'd know what you were talking about.

I didn't know you were a former writer.

 

ound: Sorry, but you've just undermined your own argument. That's fabulous!

This is my feeling also. There is no tone of voice in the written word. A good author can convey it in descriptive passages. But in the kind of stuff we post on the internet, an emoticon can prevent misunderstanding.

And I have to say I loved Wildkow's dancing banana. I disagreed with most of what he said, and I was disgusted with many of his posts, but that dancing banana always made me smile, and made it impossible to hate him as I'd have liked to for the things he said.

 

I noticed in Detroit that Tom was very formal when speaking to me.

I think he was afraid I'd turn him into a newt.

 

With a lot less annoyance.

 

De-evolution has been going on for as long as we have had frontal lobes and an older generation. History is full of words written by old farts like us bemoaning the failures of the younger generation and the end of civilization as we know it.

Tom

 

Civilizations coalesce, grow, develop skills and technologies, then peak, and then become decadent. In the decadent phase, technologies continue to improve, but the majority of citizens decay in competence and lifestyle, and finally the civilization collapses. We are in the decadent phase. No surprise that communication skills have deteriorated.

But I still like that dancing banana. :rockon:

 

I'm a very minimalist user of smile faces for a different reason. I want to learn how to communicate the nuances that some of the faces convey using just words. If you plan on writing a book, this is essential.

Here on PriusChat, I have discovered many possible ways a word, sentence, or concept can be misconstrued. So I keep trying to get better without going down the easy path.

Keep it up. There is a payoff. If you figure out how to convey sarcasm with just words and have no PCer misunderstand, let me know.

 

[SARCASM]....[/SARCASM]

Tom

 

Oh like he couldn't have figured that out for himself.

(Like that, right, FL? Obvious sarcasm, no smilies needed. And no offense taken by Tom, 'because he knows I'm teasing. Still, it's tempting to toss a few in just to be sure. But I'm trying to prove a point here, without losing any friends, by practicing a little emoticon restraint. Even if they are all pretty much the same size.)