Addition of smilies
The staff has had a long discussion about the possibility of adding smilies. The feeling amongst the staff (and from what I’ve read on the board, the feeling amongst the membership) is that some people like smilies, some people hate smilies, and some don’t care. We have decided that we will add a small number of smilies to the SDMB.
What smilies to add?
We will ask for submissions from the members and choose some of those submissions as an addition to the SDMB. We ask our members to make a reasonable effort to determine that the smiley is not the intellectual property of another person. If you find the smiley at another board, please get permission from the administrators of that board to use the smiley. If you find the smiley at a website, please get permission from the webmaster. We realize that it can be difficult to determine who has “rights” to the smiley; do your best. The preferred situation (from our point of view) would be a smiley created by a member of the SDMB, who has given us permission to use it.
How to submit?
Send an e-mail to [email=awinkelried@earthlink.net]Arnold Winkelried with your proposed smiley. Please include:
[list=1][li] your SDMB username;[/li][li]a description of the provenance of the graphic;[/li][li]any e-mails you have received from a webmaster / board administrator / smiley creator granting you access to its use;[/li][li]the smiley as an attachment (GIFformat);[/li][li]a one-word description for the “emotion” represented by the smiley (e.g. sad, happy, hyper) - this also would probably what we would use as the “text to replace” for the smiley, e.g. “: sad :” for a sad smiley.[/list=1][/li]Send the e-mail from the address you used to register at the SDMB. This is to prevent non-posters from suggesting smilies. We only extend the privilege of suggesting a smiley to SDMB posters in good standing.
The size should be not more than 48 pixels (width) by 33 pixels (height) - the size of our “Wally” smiley.
No animated smilies please.
How will the smilies be chosen?
First the staff will review the smilies and reject any that in their judgment do not meet the SDMB “community standards”. The proposals that make the cut will then be displayed on a web page, and we will have a poll (probably in IMHO) to determine which of those smilies to add to the MB. We plan on having periodic submission periods and polls, with a frequency to be determined (perhaps every other month or every three months.)
Questions/Comments?
If you would like to discuss the benefit smilies add to a message board - please post in the IMHO forum.
If you disagree with our method for choosing smilies and would like to propose a different method - please post in The BBQ Pit forum.
The submission period for the first SDMB smiley poll is starting now until 24 May 2002 24:00 (12 midnight - PDT - California, USA Daylight Savings Time).
Prepare to be flooded with “smashie” entries 
can anyone whip up a Martian smiley?
cancel that, i tried myself, does anyone know a program i can use that will save as Gif? my graphics programs only do jpeg and bitmap. (yes, they are lame, but they are free)
TT - I can convert from .bmp or .jpeg to .gif. However I would prefer receiving it as a .gif.
pezpunk - I was kind of expecting that, however note that I mentioned “no animated smilies” and “get permission from a board administrator if you find the smiley at another message board.” The “no animated smilies” decision was taken as a compromise to appease the smiley-haters.
I was just playing. Truthfully I am neither a smashie lover or hater. I like all smilies equally…well except for this racist one 
I don’t have any particular choices to nominate, but I would like to make a request of the people who choose to design and put forward potential new smilies:
Can we have one that represents a sort of tongue-in-cheek, wry comment to append where one has posted such a comment and wishes to ensure that it is not taken as “straight” opinion of the poster? Of all the uses for smilies to convey the “context” of human speech in online writing, that seems to me to be the greatest unmet need.
I second Polycarp’s idea of the :tongue-in-cheek: smiley. I’d also love to have a 
smiley to work with. :Shrug: would be cool too.
Polycarp - you could always try to find such a smiley at another site and get permission to use it. From your description I’m not sure what kind of sentiment you are trying to convey. Could you include an example of a conversational exchange where such a smiley would be used? (I am graphically inept so I won’t be attempting to draw it, but you might convince some other doper to attempt it.)
Or do you mean “tongue-in-check” like White Lightning said? I guess you would since you used that expression in your post. I usually use the wink smiley for that ( 
) but you’re right, it doesn’t really express tongue-in-cheek.
WL, I’m afraid you’re going to have to break out your crayons. I imagine many people will request smilies but there will be few artists attempting to draw them.
Hey, if i can’t find a Gif converter and have to send you a .jpg, is that going to reflect badly on my chances? (or, should i buy lots of magazine subscriptions to insure winning the 10 million dollars?!!?)
Tars Tarkas, that will not hurt your chances, since the new smiley will be decided by popular vote. But here are some links to graphic conversion programs (N.B. I have no financial interest in any of these software products):
MS Windows
Paint Shop Pro
MacOS
I wasn’t aware that anyone had so much time on his or her hands that they could find enough time or energy to devote to smiley hatred. But what do I know?
Cool, the Graphic Converter would freeze up, but Paint Shop Pro seems to have done the job! Thanks, Arnold!
So where’s the program that converts graphics from crayon scribblings on real-life paper to .gif? Or should I convert it to a .jpg first?
Also, I think my crayon - .gif conversion drive is broken (you know – the one just below the cupholder). It crumpled up my nice smiley drawing and won’t give it back. It’s also making this strange whirring noise.
“posters in good standing”
Ummm I’m sitting down. Does that mean I’m excluded? (insert appropriate smiley here)
Good call, wring – we need a :null: smiley. Like a placeholder-smiley. A ‘this-is-a-smiley’ smiley.
Submissions so Far
Note that I am not going to indicate the name of the poster who submitted the smiley, to enable our voters to make a more or less objective decision. However if someone wants to come in here and claim credit for a submission s/he may feel free to do so.
Note also that I will post submissions as they arrive but the SDMB staff still reserves the right to reject any submission before we move on to the voting phase.
Adobe PhotoDeluxe? Of course, you’ll also need this little thing called a scanner.