As I said earlier, now that there’s a better version available, I’m more than happy to remove my version of smack (the one on the left) from the running. The new one better shows what it’s supposed to be, so I thank whoever submitted it. If anyone was planning to do their own version based on mine, better grab it before I e-mail Arnold when I get home tonight.
The page now seems to have three empty spaces. By the way, Arnold, it is quite wise of you to do it this way, preventing the willy-nilly renumbering of the entries.
We need to fill in the holes, at least. At best, we should find 14 more ideas to fill out the 50. Here–I’ll throw one out to everyone. I tried it and haven’t been able to create a version I’d want to let people see, so I’d be happy if someone else could do better. A Mr. Spock smilie. It would have a raised eyebrow, so that it could be used for multiple meanings. It could be :logical:, :fascinating:, or :geekiness:. It could even serve the purpose of the :dubious: smilies.
Fine, if Footnotes are permitted, :marlo: represents the struggle of women everywhere to find their place in on the internet as well as the real world. For all the women on the 'net who are
< theme music >
Diamonds, dasies, snowflakes
That woman!
Chestnuts, Rainbows, Springtime…
Is That woman!
She’s tinsel on a tree…
She’s everything that every woman should be!
:marlo: represents all the unique views that all the females on the web hold and their exciting contributions to the whole web experience.
Let’s face it: there’s a little Anne-Marie and a little Donald Hollinger in each of us!
That, and I thought it was a funny idea and a female smiley seemed like a good idea.
In addition, :noid: represents a growing sense of alienation in society as well as an almost Kafka-esqe sense of dispair
:yuk: is the most useful, representing THOMAS KINKADE: PAINTER OF LIGHT, as well as the Starland Vocal Band and the Doodletown Pipers.
Fenris, who hopes all fans of :marlo: and :noid: will vote for :yuk: this time and :marlo: next time
Saltire: The :uhoh: smilie didn’t animate on my browser. Thanks for the heads up. I have forwarded a static version to Arnold (but still haven’t received permission to use it).
OTOH, I am working on my own version of uhoh.
BTW, I second the motion for a :spock: smilie. Emphasis on the eyebrow. With luck and skill, it could span Sherlock/Inspector and dubious. And pedant. And geekdom. Furthermore, it could be the sort of icon that actually improves upon the written equivalent ( :spock: ). Great suggestion.
And man, that 2nd :smack: was executed brilliantly. Smashie fans should definitely give it a look-see.
I like the second “smack” smilie, or the “Doh!” smilie as I am already calling it. It is perfect for conveying that feeling when you have been debating ardently with someone and eventually realise that you have been missing their (obvious) point all along…
I think the idea of a “Spock” smilie is excellent, as it could convey a number of meanings. That might be confusing, of course, but at least no-one would find it insulting. (OK, there will always be a few - “Are you saying I have funny ears?! To the Pit!”)
This smilie-makin’ business is hard work. I’ve just spent the last hour and a half trying to make a :spock: smilie. Right now it looks like :yoda, pissed off over a bad toupee:
Arnold, I just got to an awful pun in the book I’m reading* and I thought of you. The line is:
“Beware of geeks bearing GIFs.”
*The American Zone by L. Neil Smith. Sequel to The Probability Broach. Don’t read it, unless you want a lot of Libertarian politics thrown at you. I’m two-thirds through and I’m still not sure if the plot is worth the polemics. I’ll probably start a thread about it after I finish reading it.
I like:[ul]
[li]smashie- as a reminder of our disapora, he is an integral a part of our shared heritage as :wally or 3. Hi Opal!.[/li][li]Honestly, Laughing is much better than :D, but they’re redundant.[/li][li]Dubious- He’s just so cool. Besides, if You go like this:^:Dubious^, it’s a ready-made Vulcan.[/li][li]Tinfoil Hat- How many times have we all needed that one.[/li][li]Smack- See above.[/li][li]Highjack is too good to pass up.[/li][li]Yuk and lovestruck could be very useful, but they’re just too damn cute for me to openly endorse.[/li][/ul]
Arnold has added my latest creation, :spock: As I said before, he was hard to do well, so what you see is the result of hours of playing around with the shading. I’m still not entirely happy with it.
So, once again, I’m putting my work out in the public domain. If you have the time and inclination (and, hopefully, better artistic abilities than I have), please feel free to grab my smilie and mess with it. This also goes for the other two I have up, the dunce and the first whoosh (the one with the blue wind across the top).
By the way, I’m really not announcing each of my smilies just to blow my own horn. As I’ve said, I don’t feel I’m all that good at drawing these things. I just want to be sure, if the board decides one of my ideas is good, that the execution we end up with is the best one possible. In most cases, ‘best one possible’ means ‘not the one Saltire did originally’. This worked well for the smack smilie.
Personally, my vote is hovering between :dubious: and :gobsmacked:
Is anyone going to attempt a ‘turkey with a mortarboard’ :Cecil: smilie? Would one need permission from Slug?
Spock is supposed to have a greenish complexion due to his copper-based blood :here would be a great place to use him, to show what a geeky thing I just wrote:
Actually, he appeared as a really light green with darker green shading on my home monitor. Here at work, on my Mac, he is a lot greener than I’d intended. I’ll work on it if I get the chance (I’ll be really busy in the next few days).
I considered the handsign when I first did him, but rejected the idea. If he isn’t recognizable from his face, he’s too poorly drawn to keep anyway. Also, adding a hand would make him larger, and large smilies can be too ‘in your face’. Though they are never subtle, no matter what the size.
I second the motion for “dubious” and “uhoh”. I assure my fellow posters that my gif-designing skills are pretty meagre. If nothing else, I suspect that somebody with even a rudimentary background in design could usefully touch my work up. A rethink might be even better.
Speaking of uhoh
:dubious: was intended as a milder variant of :rolleyes:
:uhoh: is suppose to improve upon ( :o ), which doesn’t get much use. :uhoh: would be somewhat broader, however, since it could express nervousness with others as well as oneself.
I am going to send Arnold 2 new versions of :uhoh: and ask that he replace the name with :nervous: , which I think expresses the concept better.
The smackie would be a great supplement / possible future replacement to .
I might note that a laughing smilie is not absolutely necessary, since we have LOL . Still, that’s a pretty good execution of the concept.
I am warming to “Swiss”. However: 1) Few will know what “ch” means. 2) “Swiss” means “a particular nationality in the middle of Europe” to me more than “neutrality”.
:iamneutralonthis: seems like a useful concept though. In the past, the expression has been shrug which is somewhat dismissive.
:Ambivalent: might be another useful icon. Maybe the smilies could use another tweaking.
( :o ), which doesn’t get much use. :uhoh: would be somewhat broader, however, since it could express nervousness with others as well as oneself.