Smileys: What Do You Think About Them?

[Ajita Kamal]

Smilies, emoticons, whatever you call them, people have very different responses to them. Some people seem to think that they sully the level of discourse. Others couldn't care less about the level of discourse as long as they're being understood the way they like.

Personally, I like them. But not these ones.

So, this thread is to determine what we're going to do about the smilies on this board. I suggest we have a discussion first and a poll later to decide whether we're going to keep smileys, and if we are, then which smiley pack is best suited for our forums. :idea:

[Ajita Kamal]

I'm bumping this thread up because we need a solution and I think this should be a community decision. I can't stand these smileys we have now, and I'd like to know what the community thought about smileys in general.

Specifically, does anyone have a smiley pack that they think would be good for this forum?

What do you all think?

[Lije]

I don't mind having smileys in forum posts as long as we they aren't distracting. As to the smiley pack, I have no idea. I mostly use just the smiling smiley.

[Ajita Kamal]

Hey, thanks for the input, Lije. I'm just about as ambivalent as you are about the smileys. I think it all depends on the conversation. I'd use them in a casual conversation, if they were well made and not too cheesy. Not all conversations are serious, and this might just be one of those things that depends on the context.

I have a couple of sets of smileys that I'm going through. Will have these pre-installed ones changed soon.

[Ajita Kamal]

Alright, the smileys have been changed. How do you like these ones compared to the originals?

[Lije]

(25-Apr-2010, 04:17 PM)Ajita Kamal Wrote: Alright, the smileys have been changed. How do you like these ones compared to the originals?

These are much better than the earlier ones .

[siddharth]

Hey. Excuse the late reply. What I don't like about smileys is that often given a choice, some people end up overusing them and that does get on my nerves. But our forum consists of smart freethinkers, and our discussions are often academic. So I think it is alright if we leave them on, and I do like the new ones better.

[Ajita Kamal]

Has anyone seen a 'Thinking' smiley around anywhere? Egotwist brought up the fact that we need a smiley to signify 'Thinking', on the profanity thread, and I've been unable to find any suitable ones. Please post here if you can find one.

[donatello]

I was thinking about smilies, and I think they make a post more fun to read, if they are pretty good. We should make better use of them. I think we should add a few more funny ones! I saw the set on rationalskepticism.org at http://www.rationalskepticism.org/postin...ilies&f=28 They have a huge set and very many of them are funny. They make great use of their smileys and it makes the forum really fun!

[Azad]

The new Smileys are better than the oldies. It is fun to use smileys and makes it fun reading the forums too.

I guess we all have an understanding on how and when to use one.
Don't we ?