It is rarely used to good effect, and seems to serve only to amplify the level of snark in any given thread, especially when certain posters use it all the time when asking for a cite (and the first one that asks me for a cite on that gets a purple nurple).
Just my personal opinion - chime in if you agree or disagree.
Oh horrors! Snark and asking for cites at a message board built around the works of Cecil Adams?
I voted for that smiley when it was submitted for approval because I thought at the time that there wasn’t a smiley that could better illustrate what this place was supposed to be. Getting rid of it would just be admitting that people don’t actually give a crap about approaching the world with a healthy skepticism or critical thinking, and that everyone’s just here to post pictures of their cats and talk about TV shows. Maybe that’s what this place is now. YMMV.
I like it and vote for keeping it. Any element of communication can and will be overused or misused by someone at some point. (Gratuitous LEETing is my pet peeve.)
I agree with the OP. The last thing people should be doing is implying that they don’t fully believe the claims of others. It’s just rude. Polite people believe what they are told.
I’d also like to get rid of the confused smiley (which suggests that people aren’t making their points clearly enough) and the cool smiley (it makes me feel inferior for not having nice sunglasses).
Just looks like somebody winking to me (yes, I know there is another winking smiley as well ;)). I don’t get how you can convey being dubious in a smiley.
The dubious smiley looks as if it has one eyebrow raised and the other eye is narrowed as if in a side-wise glance. And its mouth is in a thin, tight line, as if its lips are pursed. Just how a person looks when he’s skeptical of something.
I’m not particularly smiley-happy in my posts, but I loves me some :dubious:. It’s pretty much the distilled essence of the Dope. (And for that matter, I want ;j back, dammit.)
If we’re going to get rid of any emoticons, I not-so-humbly suggest the “I am a smug santimonious douche with no actual point beyond conveying my own sense of self-superiority” smiley, otherwise known as :rolleyes:. I hate that thing with every ounce of loathing that I can bring myself to dedicate to loathing a smiley, which is not that much all told, but still.
Can we call it “skeptical” instead of “dubious”? I mean, this is closer to “dubious” than :dubious:
:dubious: says, “Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Care to explain?” not “Gee, I dunno.”
If we’re going to get rid of any smiley, make it the yawn “I so sleepy!” :o “embarrassed” smiley. Not that we couldn’t have an “embarrassed” smiley, but it should look like a blushing, sad face.