Emoticons

Feature I'd most like to see in aikiweb: one that would restrict use of emoticons to no more than one per post and no more than three in every ten posts.

The current limit seems to be around 10 per post.

I take it these annoy you?

Ashley Carter wrote: I take it these annoy you?

I use them myself, but their overuse annoys me. Aikiweb is nowhere near as bad as some sites that have "emoticons" with 200x200 pixel unicorns with rainbows coming out of their butts (and people use 'em...oh yes they do), but it's a slippery slope, yes it is.

Mary Malmros wrote: I use them myself, but their overuse annoys me. Aikiweb is nowhere near as bad as some sites that have "emoticons" with 200x200 pixel unicorns with rainbows coming out of their butts (and people use 'em...oh yes they do), but it's a slippery slope, yes it is.

Pixelized Unicorn with rainbows coming out their butts? Puh-leeze.
What are you trying to say?


Next.... you'll be coming for my ellipsis.

Josh, more like:

PURRRRRTY!!!!!! I get what you are saying. I can get emoticon happy every once in a while. Feel free to throw an atemi my way if I start to annoy you. --->

In all seriousness though, I think one of the benefits of them is in a circumstance where a statement may be interpreted in several ways. A smiley at the end may allow the reader a chance to take it with sarcasm instead of thinking the poster is an ass. HOWEVER, I hate it when people use them after when they really are being an (_!_)

Is there a middle ground here?

P.S. I was thinking more like this......

Wow. That's right out there, Ashley.

Yeah, emoticons can get misused in the same way as "Just sayin'" ("you can say anything as long as you're just sayin'") or "bless your heart" -- a "get out of jail free" card after you've just said or done something nasty. Also, I don't get the chain of emoticons some people have taken to using. Let's see, we've got one that supposedly means hypnotized, followed by a yuck face, followed by rolling eyes, followed by one that says "freaky", and then there's one that says "dead", and...hello? Is there a message here? Did you really mean to say "I'm hypnotized and I find this yucky and I'm rolling my eyes and I find this freaky and now I'm dead"? Wouldn't words do the job better?

I hope this won't get people really mad at me but it reminds me of something from Art History, about which I never took a class, but am interested in art anyway.

Mom was just Mom, as many people are fond of saying about their moms and that is why occasionally we are surprised by something our mom does, says, is interested in, etc. The psychologists among us will probably say, well of course, parents aren't just parents, they are people with their own lives etc. too.

The point of my post? Hieronymous Bosch! Centuries ago! I was so shocked about animals or people with a rose coming out of you know where. (Won't use the A word, I'm not sure Mom can hear me or not, and not about to ask Aiki web for ideas on the afterlife)

I didn't know whose small copy of pictures of his paintings was in the family library overflow area in a small back room, a booklet of full color photographs of the artist's work probably published by the European museum.... village scenes, I think it was, buy hey, that day I realized modern art was not invented in the twentieth century. Mom just placidly answered that it was hers and yes she liked Hieronymous Bosch's work. But Mom....It's so weird!

I still don't know what his artwork was about, and why all those strange things, but I plan to read about it.

Is my post too far fetched? I hope not, though I don't think this will lead to a major discussion on art and emoticons. It's just a thought someone might find interesting.

Personally, this is the first I have seen of the unicorns with rainbows... I think it's just graphics, it's done for design reasons, but I guess the point of this thread is do the emoticons if overused detract from the meaning of the posts and threads.

I hope my post doesn't detract from the thread, but the great art precedent just jumped to my mind. They often say about art that it's a matter of personal preference, self expression, etc.

Diana: so...uh...what WAS the deal with the flowers?

Oops, sorry, I tend to ramble when giving background. It was a village scene, I think. Often his paintings had people in peasant clothes. But in this particular painting I think there was a person with no clothes on, and a rose coming out of the butt. I'll have to look it up. In the meantime, if anyone knows this painting and can help out here. Anyway this was the real startling thing about the painting, though there may have been other things. I saw the book many years ago. There were other people, and maybe animals around, it was a relatively large landscape.....

Mary Malmros wrote: Wow. That's right out there, Ashley. Yeah, emoticons can get misused in the same way as "Just sayin'" ("you can say anything as long as you're just sayin'")

I completely and TOTALLY agree with that statement. BRAVO!

On another note, I just checked out the icons after you mentioned it and I must say that I never realized each of the smilies had a descriptive tag to them.... hmmm......