They being http://www.trekbbs.com
Any chance of us getting any. I think they use the same software or what ever to run their board. Just a thought…
They use UBB, not VB.
Animated smilies are possible with VB, but new smiles are almost never added.
Besides, do we really need something that might add to our bandwidth problems? (No offense intended, Pushkin).
Oh, Opal’s got animated smilies and graphics-enabled sigs over at http://fff.fathom.org and lots of the TM hang out over there. Maybe that’s worth a try?
I don’t even want to get into the bandwidth issues, as I’m not sure smilies take up much, but the more important issue is copyright.
Other sites may be more cavalier about the use of material that belongs to others but we cannot be and so we are confined to graphic elements that we can confirm are original to us and/or that we have rights to.
For that reason we reject most requests for smilies and other animated graphic elements, usually they come from some other site. We can’t just rip them off. And even on the sites where such elements are provided for use, they tend to be free for individuals and fee paid by companies. Since this site is owned by the Chicago Reader, we’d fall into the paid category and the Reader’s not willing to pony up.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Perhaps more significantly, even if an image is fully available for our free use, adding smilies takes some time, and can only be done by administrators. Unfortunately, administrator time is a commodity we’re rather short on, and there’s plenty of things more pressing than adding smilies.
Copyright worries? I hate to be blunt, but I think that excuse ran thin a long time ago. You’ve had lots of submissions that were original work, even from Chronos as I recall. And lots of promises that it would be next week, next week. Now it’s such a heavy burden. Why couldn’t you have mentioned it earlier, before so many people wasted time on it?
Why not just admit you don’t know how and don’t want to know how? There’s probably 50 people on the board who could do it in an hour. It’s roughly 4 lines of code per image.
They don’t need your computer to do it. They could edit the files remotely and give them back to you to copy. Or is a sigle copy too much for you?
You never fixed the FAQ either, after bragging so long that you would, and tying up so much time with suggestions.
You just bite off more than you can chew, and when you realize you don’t have a clue where to start you make excuses.
What would be nice is if you let go of the reins for a second and let people help.
But that’s the essence of the warped “SDMB moderator ethic” here isn’t it? Being control freaks. People want to contribute money, you shut them down. People want to donate equipment or hosting space, you shut them down.
If you don’t know how to do something, you pretend you do to keep control, and then make endless excuses why you can’t deliver.
Can YOU prove they are original? No. Can the Reader? No. Should they risk a lawsuit? NO.
But they DO know how, :wally
Are you just painfully ignorant on the issue, or are you just pretending to be?
Nah. It’s just that everytime we start editing the FAQ or somesuch, an idiot like you posts, and we have to resume our daily duties again.
A post like that belongs in the Pit, No Bones. Then again, you seem to have a hard time following rules, right?
And of course, for the Obvious Award: if you hate us so much, why stick around?
Furthermore, the last time that this came up, it was, in fact, mentioned that it could only be done by admins, and that said admins don’t really have the time to do this.
Yes, I did submit a couple of possible smilies. Consider: I have a pretty good idea of exactly how busy Ms. Diva is (better than most posters, at least). I have a vested interest in getting new smilies added. Nonetheless, I do not complain about them not being added. Does this tell anyone anything?
Yes, I have been amiss in the Smiley department.
And I apologize.
I also apologize for all the other improvements to this area that I personally have not gotten to.
It’s because I only have so much time to give to this board (it’s not my full time job, but it could be, except that I don’t get paid for it) . . . I tend to run out of time long before I run out of things to do.
I am doing the best I can, such as it is.
And so is Lynn and Dex and all our fabulous mods, who give up chunks of their own lives for a good word and a coffee mug (that some of them haven’t even received yet. I’m working on that this week too, guys.)
No Bones, you seem to be quite cheesed off at us. You can’t be that mad over smilies, just what IS your problem?
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Shame on you, Tuba, for having a life! Fifty lashes with a ramen noodle for daring to presume to do something besides work on the Straight Dope Message Board 24/7! There’s a worldwide smilie shortage, and you’re doing nothing about it! Nothing!! Why, there are starving Armenians out there without access to smilies!
And the FAQ, what about the FAQ? The Russians already have a FAQ! You’ve left us behind in FAQ Preparedness! Any day now, the Russkies could invade Chicago with their FAQ, and where would the Straight Dope Message Board be, I ask you? Well, I’ll tell you–all the little Dopers would be captured and wearin’ red armbands and marchin’ shoulder to shoulder off to Lenin’s tomb, that’s where they’d be!
And all because you thought you were entitled to–“have a life”.
Bah. I spit me of your “life”. Ptooh.
[insert the emoticon for extreme contempt which we don’t have and it’s all your fault]
Watch it, now, DDG–you don’t want any of your Precious Bodily Fluids to fall into the hands of the Communists, do you?
:eek: Dang! I forgot! [hastily wipes floor of ATMB with wad of kleenex]
Whew. Thanks, Buckner.
Until you pay money for the Board, No Bones, don’t gripe about things like “smileys” and “FAQs” in the tone you are using. I would have banned you from my Board for your OP, simply because it would have pissed me off so much. Thankfully, Tuba et al are somewhat more sane and rational than myself.
Of course, if the SDMB ever needs another Admin who has some decent vBulletin experience, and who believes the solution to bandwidth problems is to ban about 42% of the Board, well…I’m your gal! Woo! 
Hmmm…I think perhaps No Bones was just trying to gather all the mods and admins into one thread…leaving the Cave Of Knowledge UNATTENDED!
QUICKLY! To the Dopemobile!
jarbaby
I just don’t like liars. Oh, excuse me, I should say people who make phoney excuses with the intent to cover up. I like the board. I like the posters who are honest. It’s just that when mods lie it makes me want to make them face the fact.
And the “Flying Off The Handle With The Greatest Of Ease Award” goes to…
And you’re doing such a wonderful job of it, too! :wally
I hereby nominate Anthracite for MPSIMS moderator, where she can be in sole charge of all the flirting threads.