[QUOTE=furt]
Yes, they do. If fact they convey far, far, FAR more than a picture does, provided one knows how to use them.
[/QUOTE]
Not the case. Words have never been sufficient. They are barely adequate. Try to use words to express the happiest you’ve ever felt - or the saddest. Attempt to describe the beauty of sun on snow using vowels and consonants and nouns and verbs.
The word ‘ineffable’ wouldn’t exist if one could actually convey all sensations, thoughts, impressions, etc. using words.
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
I hate hate HATE the pretentious and snobbish “oh, words can convey so much, the beauty of the English language is of such exquisite blah blah blah only an imbecile would sink blah blah blah lowest common denominator blah blah blah” attitude.
Posts on something like the SDMB have two characteristics which make smilies very useful:
(1) Your posts are usually quick things making a quick point, not essays that you’ve read and reread and rewritten and triplechecked
(2) You don’t know who all is going to be reading them, and they don’t know you
Suppose, for instance, that esteemed poster MattMcl posted an OP about having a crappy day and some minorly bad things happening to him. I might be tempted to respond by saying “Ahh, it’s just God punishing you for being gay :)”. Now, I’m not claiming that’s the height of wit or anything approaching it, but it’s the kind of vaguley camaraderie-ish statement that makes the SDMB feel like a community, and not just an impersonal medium for debate. But I would be VERY hesitant to post that without the smilie, because of the chance, however small, that it wasn’t obvious that I was kidding. Of course, I could use my massive writing skills to, using only pure words and not vulgar symbols, make it totally crystal clear that I was kidding. But, honestly, it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
Smilies are useful. They increase clarity communication. People who get all huffy about them are snobs.
Now, overuse of smilies should be punishable by preemptive banning. But overuse and use are two totally different things, with smilies like with most things.
[/QUOTE]
I agree with all of this. They’re just another communication tool. That people want fewer tools in their toolbox is just silly. Sure, smiley abuse happens, but people abuse things like cApItAlIzAtIoN too. Should we eliminate that?
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
The word ‘ineffable’ wouldn’t exist if one could actually convey all sensations, thoughts, impressions, etc. using words.
[/QUOTE]
Nothing is ineffable, you just have to try harder to eff it.
(Apologies to Douglas Adams)
Please, no new smilies. I hate smilies. The only time I ever use them is when I anticipate that the person I’m speaking too is going to assume that the *lack *of a smiley is significant in and of itself. I fucking hate that! Too many people here consider the lack of a smiley as proof that you’re not joking, no matter how clearly your words indicate otherwise. I hate feeling forced in such a case to use a fucking smiley; I feel like someone’s holding a 45 to my temple screaming: DOT YOUR I’s WITH LITTLE HEARTS YOU FUCKING FUCK! The only time I wish we had a different smiley is in that exact situation; I wish there were a Deadpan Smiley–like the standard yellow guy, but with a flat line for a mouth. Maybe that would be a “what?” smiley. If we could trade a “what?” smiley for all these retarded smilies, I’d be happy. Although I do like the blowjob smiley; he makes me horny.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
I’m sorry, but this is patently incorrect. Pictures cross the boundaries of language and culture, something words do only with great difficulty, if at all. Pictures convey a great deal of information at a glance, with minimal possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpretation; again, this is not always the case with words, no matter how carefully chosen. I’ve seen more scuffles around here caused by the absence of a single smiley than have ever been caused by their overuse. Words alone are simply inadequate to convey the subtleties of emotion we are capable of as human beings. We are expressive creatures, with a body language as complex as any written tongue; a well-placed smiley can speak volumes.
[/QUOTE]
Which is why I think the smilies we have are more than sufficient. We do not need a pukey smilie, a banging-my-head-against-the-wall smilie, or a chainsaw smilie. And we certainly do not need animated smilies of any kind. If you find that you can’t be subtle enough to get by without using one of those, then you’re not trying hard enough.
As controversial the argument regarding the effectiveness of smilies is, can we all agree that those that post two or more smilies directly adjacent to one another should be shot?
Furthermore, the roll-eyes smiley should be banned from the Internet. I don’t think I have ever seen a single instance on any messageboard where the roll-eyes smiley was used without the poster coming off like a complete dick. Don’t get me started when people use it as a single, standalone ‘rebuttal’ to someone’s argument. Every time I see that green bastard sitting alone under a huge swathe of quoted text I want to jump through that person’s monitor and bite their eyebrows off. If there’s a website dedicated to banning Comic Sans, there could and should be one for roll-eyes.
[insert semi-serious and selectively sarcastic smiley here]
[QUOTE=Hogwash]
As controversial the argument regarding the effectiveness of smilies is, can we all agree that those that post two or more smilies directly adjacent to one another should be shot?
Furthermore, the roll-eyes smiley should be banned from the Internet. I don’t think I have ever seen a single instance on any messageboard where the roll-eyes smiley was used without the poster coming off like a complete dick. Don’t get me started when people use it as a single, standalone ‘rebuttal’ to someone’s argument. Every time I see that green bastard sitting alone under a huge swathe of quoted text I want to jump through that person’s monitor and bite their eyebrows off. If there’s a website dedicated to banning Comic Sans, there could and should be one for roll-eyes.
[insert semi-serious and selectively sarcastic smiley here]
[/QUOTE]
Out of curiosity, do I “come off like a complete dick” here?
[QUOTE=scottkris]
Tough. If you don’t have the time to think out your reponse, then don’t respond.
I could spend $15 to post to this board and proofread my post. Why can’t others?
[/QUOTE]
Oh, blow me. I proofread for a fucking living, dickhead, and go over each post I make four or five times to make sure it’s saying what I want it to say. Even then, I end up rejecting twice as many posts as those I actually send through. All that has nothing to do with being a skilled and erudite writer such that what one says has only one possible meaning even if one wishes to employ irony or sarcasm.
Not everything that’s written on a message board must be of earth-shattering impact, and if I can use a smiley in a light-hearted conversation to indicate a tone of voice rather than spend twice as much time to compose an essay on whether or not I thought the latest episode of Lost was cool, I will. Pretentious asshat.
[QUOTE=mr. jp]
Out of curiosity, do I “come off like a complete dick” here?
[/QUOTE]
Nah, you’re alright, kid. Forgive the exaggeration (ironically, I felt compelled to add that sarcasm disclaimer at the end incase anybody took offence). Of course, not everybody who uses roll-eyes is a dick, it’s just that, to me, it has been overused to the point that I can’t see it without making the connection to self-assured, smug idiots who toss out a roll-eyes or three as some kind of support to their argument. A roll-eyes may be appropriate for bad film-making or a politician’s rambling idiocy, but I feel that there has got to be a better way. I’m all roll-eyesed out.
It’s because of the negative connotations. It’s hard to get sick of the yellow smiling smiley because it’s always used in the context of kittens and mittens and cinammon buns and the like. And who could get sick of kittens and mittens and cinnamon buns?
Of course, it’s just a fracking message board anyway so perhaps I need to worry less about things. Roll on, brother.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
I’m sorry, but this is patently incorrect. Pictures cross the boundaries of language and culture, something words do only with great difficulty, if at all. Pictures convey a great deal of information at a glance, with minimal possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpretation; again, this is not always the case with words, no matter how carefully chosen. I’ve seen more scuffles around here caused by the absence of a single smiley than have ever been caused by their overuse. Words alone are simply inadequate to convey the subtleties of emotion we are capable of as human beings. We are expressive creatures, with a body language as complex as any written tongue; a well-placed smiley can speak volumes.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=furt]
If fact they convey far, far, FAR more than a picture does, provided one knows how to use them.
[/QUOTE]
If that were the case, the saying would be “A word is worth a thousand pictures.”
