Text-to-image, rather aptly. Note that it only works if the link goes directly to a picture, and not to the flicr/facebook/whatever page displaying the image; still, I find it to be rather useful. You can turn it on/off for each tab you’re viewing with a single click. The download link is here.
Generally speaking, I’d be against this…I’m satisfied with the current crop of smilies (save for an irrational desire for the return of :j).
As I learned many years ago, though, the thing about Squee is that you can squash it temporarily, but it just keeps coming back…and continuing to focus your aggression on it only hurts you in the long run. Best, then, when you find yourself facing an opposing Squee, to just ignore it and go about your other business.
Time for you to show us what you want. If you can’t find an example at another site, draw one on a napkin and fax it to us.
[sub]^^^[/sub]
[sup]0[/sup][sub]|[/sub][sup]0[/sup]
_/
I made one up (http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2235/squee.gif), it’s about the size of a normal smiley, and I don’t have photoshop so the background is white instead of transparent, but on the off chance we used it all someone would have to do is change that, I’d do it myself if I had photoshop should only take about 3 seconds. I don’t have time to make another at this exact moment, but looking at it, it looks a little too much like an alternate 
(or perhaps :D), so maybe eyes closed/squinted would work better. I tried to do sparkly eyes, but 15x15px is just too small, maybe someone else would have better luck on that. Size restriction on this make it really tough, the eye real estate alone makes it tough to do much.
Well, okay, not ALL someone would have to do, it’s a little rough, but you probably figured that out already.
I think we need this smiley: :deadpan:
There’s a case to be made for ::deadpan::, as it might enhance communication – it’s also a credible softener.
Along the same lines, ::chuckle:: or ::heh:: could be used to say “Well ok, but…”
Why couldn’t the poster simply write, “Well ok, but…”? Well, the smilie would be used to indicate emotional sympathy, as a prelude to substantive disagreement.
[quote]
[ul][li]be well executed, in a graphic sense[/ul][/li][/quote]
This is hard. I think lissener’s proposal is commendable as a first effort, though it could use some work.
At any rate, there are other boards where these concepts could be tried out. Speaking of first efforts needing work, I might submit this implementation of :heh: or :chuckle: . Operationally, it might be a gentler version of the winky. Regardless, if anybody has a better label for it, let us know.
Heh; that Marty Feldman cracks me up.
Thank you!
What is this “:j” everyone is getting nostalgic about? Is it related to the Hassidic Jew smiley (which I have heard about, but alas, never seen) or is it something else entirely?
Where can we see the old SD smilies? I am having very foggy, lurky memories of smiley debates of yore.
I have an old bookmark pointing to the list of proposed smilies, but the link is now dead. The first poll resulted in the addition of Mr. Smackie. The second poll gave us Dubious. IIRC “None of the above” was an actively considered choice in both rounds. As always, management had the final say and “No moving images” was a rule from the get-go, (so the much beloved Smashie did not qualify, to the chagrin of very few). Still later, putz and :j were trimmed out.
Luckily, at least some of them were internet archived.
I’m generally not a fan of inline images, but some of the ones proposed here are quite good. The deadpan smilie is especially good. And we have needed a puking, or at least a green-faced sick smilie. The one MSN messenger uses is a good example.
For the people asking why use an image when a few dozen words can be used to convey the sentiment, I respond thusly:
:dubious:
Ah, but some really only require one word, eg ::blech:: .
For those interested, an account of the 1982 invention/emergence/discovery of the emoticon is here.
I like the idea of a deadpan smiley (better than a “squee” smiley). I didn’t particularly like that implementation of it.
Do you expect me to read all of that? Can’t you just summarize it with an 18 square pixel image?
Seconded!!
Except that the OP is proposing a smilie to express a one word sentiment.
If we’re going to have a “squee” smiley we should probably have a “twee” smiley also.