I see the distinction. Dubious basically means to possess doubtful quality or reputation. Skeptical means to hold doubt or denial. You can doubt something that is dubious. You have a point. “Skeptical” is a better name for the smilie. But 
represents confusion to me more than dubiousness.
I like that in conjunction with the thread in the pit.
Smileys are like abortion-- they should be safe, legal and rare.
They certainly cause as much controversy as abortion around here…
Well, two out of three isn’t bad.
If anything we need MORE smilies, not fewer.
And we definitely a better one than the sleepy blowjob for embarassed :o
The embarrassed smilie is the worst of all time. :o It just blows.
The prostate exam smilie could be dropped, I suppose. - :eek:
but you need the :dubious: and the :rolleyes: They convey so much.
I agree. The dubious and rolleyes effectively convey the intent of the mood. The other ones are rather arbitrary.
Yes, it is often used in a snarky manner.
If you think about it, dubious is actually a softened rolley-eyes. And the latter is standard issue in message boards. So getting rid of dubious while keeping rolley would tend to increase snark, ironically.
Also, Smacky is an improved version of embarrassed. What we need is a better winky, IMHO, one that is a little less corny. I designed this alternative a ways back, but floundered when working out a name for it: http://wm55.inbox.com/thumbs/2c_130b92_3bbb2b38_oG.gif.thumb
How about ::wellOK:: , ::friendly:: or even ::friend:: ?
Full disclosure: tshirts invented dubious and I tweaked the design a little. I shared the concerns of the OP, but oddly its usage turned out better than I expected. Smacky, OTOH, is pure awesome. It conveys, “I am an idiot”, and facilitates retraction: it is an excellent addition to our ignorance-fighting arsenal.
If you use the “SDMB inline images” Greasemonkey script, a link to a smiley displays the smiley.
:eek: :rolleyes:
:dubious::dubious::dubious:
;)
No, if I’ve learned one thing about this board it’s that it must never change any of its aesthetic, ever. In fact, we should probably close registration to prevent… undesirables from coming in.
On second thought just close it to new posts completely. It’s the only way to be sure.
:rolleyes:
Uhh… Cite, please? :dubious:
(What in the hell is a “purple nurple”?!)
(bolding mine)
Gosh-a-rooney! I thought that was exactly what this board was all about! :rolleyes:
Do you really think it isn’t?
Well then, somebody that can, ought to change it so that the eyes are open, if that’s what it really is. 
+1 
I vote for this smilie too. It’s just too good to leave out 
Add another vote for keeping Mr. Dubious. I like him! I woud also like to see more smilies to play with; they add something to the board. I really like the ‘he’ crazy’ that John DiFool posted.
This came up in a debate once. A poster (with kids mind you) claimed to have never experienced a leaky diaper. Not only that, I do believe he also maintained it just didn’t happen to anyone else either except on the rarest of occasions. And I highly suspect it wasnt true but just an attempt to have “data” that would support “his” side of the debate.
:dubious: is perfect for that sort of baloney.
I think the dubious smiley works not only for the sentiment “I am skeptical of your claim” but also “I am skeptical of the sincerity with which you say that” and even something milder like “I suspect that if you think a little more deeply about what you are saying, you might want to rephrase it.”
In other words, all the kinds of situations in which I raise an eyebrow in real life.
On the board I linked to above, as part of a forum game I posted a bunch of smilies so as to tell a story-I guess I did too good a job because someone guessed it (The Princess Bride) on the very first try.