Pre-smiley poll debate

In My Humble Opinion
81

Remember, the purpose of The Straight Dope is not just fighting ignorance, but making fun of it. We wouldn’t be here if Cecil were merely a smart guy. He’s a smart-ass smart guy.

So a lot of the emoticons are there to be used for wisecracks, and to keep wisecracks from being taken too seriously.

However, I’m still debating my faves with myself. I think :dubious: and :gobsmacked: are still winning (though we gotta change the name of the latter). They are both useful in showing how you feel about a subject (usually the OP or a previous post). That way, everyone knows where you’re coming from when you discuss it.

82

Added evil grin, sour, and tired. This brings us to 50 so the limit for submitting “new concepts” is closed (thought until the end of the day today - see exact date/time in the ATMB thread) you could still submit a smiley that fits in one of our 50 categories.

I plan on starting the first round of voting sometime Sunday morning (in two days - 24 May 2002 - probably before noon PDT - California, USA time.)
Method of polling:
see discussion here

83

We only get to keep ONE???

OK, the polls are open and early results are coming in…the leaders at this point, utilizing the strategy outlined in which the leaders in each poll plus (aside from them) the best 4 vote-getters overall, are:

yuk (42)
uhoh (33)
smashie (54)
smack (71)
hijack (56)
dubious(51)
foil (47)
cecil (43)
woosh (39)

I like :smack: and if we are only to acquire one new smilie, I could live with it being smack.

But why can’t we just keep all of the first-round winners?

84

I just looked them over, and whoosh is in a tie with sherlock at 40 for the last wildcard spot, so Arnold might have to break out that Swiss coin of his. If polling were to end, a smiley with 40 votes wouldn’t make it but one with 33 (uhoh) would.

85

It warms my heart to see that smashie is not running away with this election.

86

A vote for Smashie is a vote for fluffy kittens, romantic sunsets, and the laughter of children.

A vote against Smashie means that you kick puppies, vote for Nazis, and generally despise everything we as a species hold dear.

Anti-Smashites are traitors. They must be placed underneath the divine hammer of Our Beloved Smashie and crushed like the vermin they are.

If you do not vote for Smashie, the terrorists have won.

Vote Smashie. Thank you.

87

A vote for Smashie is a vote for Satan.

Think of the children:

**VOTE FOR YUK! **

88

A vote for Smashie is a vote for Satan.

Think of the children:

**


VOTE FOR YUK!

**

89

Clearly, the double-post was set-up by agents of Smashie.

Y’know, Smashie-fans…the cover-up is what bothers me the most about your part in the above double-post. <tsk>

The voters might have forgiven you for setting up the double-post, falsely attributed to me, but they’ll never forgive the cover-up.

Fenris

90

There is an old saying – “To a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Clearly, Smashie shall prevail, if not in the initial poll, then in one of the subsequent ones. And I’m sure Smashie is keeping track of those misguided individuals who vote for some other, inferior, smilie. Smashie, of course, has a hammer, and, sad to say, no doubt those who fail to support him will look like nails. Anyway, I’m getting on his good side while I still can – All Hail The Glorious Coming Reign of Smashie!

The preceding was brought to you by SDMBers For Smashie.

91

I alluded to this in a post on page one of this thread. If you poll the staff members you will find that a good proportion of them hate smilies. There are not very many that were strongly in favour of adding smilies. And in the membership we have heard several anti-smiley comments. So we have decided to add a few smilies one at a time. (i.e. there would be another smiley poll in two or three months.)

92

OK, that makes sense. Thanks, Arnold!

93

As reports from additional precincts are being tallied, the picture changes slightly, although certain trends appear to have established themselves for the long haul, although we won’t know for sure until the final polling stations close, Sam…

In Poll #1, Sherlock has edged out yesterday’s leader, yuk, for the nominal Poll 1 spot; and to add to the bad news for supporters of yuk, evil has also caught and passed yuk, and since some of the other polls are seeing greater volume, that’s going to drop yuk from the list of Round 2 candidates altogether.

Poll 2 continues to offer up Uh Oh as its nominal candidate. Actually, if there were not an automatic berth for the winner in each poll, Poll 2 would not have any contenders at this point.

Poll 3 is wholly owned by Smashie, which is in 2nd place overall. The runner-up, whoosh, however, isn’t currently making it to Round 2 because, as with yuk, it gets bumped off by 2nd (and even 3rd) place candidates from other polls.

Poll 4 is the home of Smack, the overall leader. Smack has a 15 point lead over Smashie, and might be even farther out in front if it were not for Cecil, which is drawing 101 points in the same poll.

Poll 5 continues to be headed up by Hijack, with Dubious and Foil chasing close behind, and all three of them beating everyone except Smack and Smashie.

So as of this moment our 2nd Round candidates would be:

Sherlock [117] {Poll 1 leader}
Uh Oh [85] {Poll 2 leader}
Smashie [155] {Poll 3 leader}
Smack [170] {Poll 4 leader}
Hijack [132] {Poll 5 leader}
Dubious [122] {Poll 5}
Foil [120] {Poll 5}
Cecil {Poll 4}
Evil {Poll 1}

94

Umm, Sam, could we put the numbers up for Cecil and Evil? I’m sure our viewers would like to see that…

Cecil [101] {Poll 4}
Evil [99] {Poll 1}

95

[dan rather]
“The race is as hot and tight as a too small bathing suit on a too long ride back from the beach.”
[/dan rather]

96

Damn, swiss isn’t making the cut! The more I think about it the more both “foil” and “swiss” are really creative smileys.

but dubious is still, by far, my favorite. It serves the skeptic in all of us well.

97

Actually what I should be doing is keeping track of the number of voters each day, so as to get an idea of the useful time period of this process. If everyone votes in the first three days then having it open for seven days may not be necessary. As of this writing:
Poll 1 324 voters
Poll 2 277 voters
Poll 3 309 voters
Poll 4 286 voters
Poll 5 315 voters

98

Counts right now:
Poll 1 372 voters
Poll 2 322 voters
Poll 3 357 voters
Poll 4 333 voters
Poll 5 359 voters

99

I can think of a number of smilies that would be more useful, but for some reason :foil: has a certain aesthetic appeal for me. If not this time, maybe the next…

100

If I were a betting sort of person, I’d put my dineros on smackie, since it has the sort of cross-over appeal that does well within an approval voting framework.

It has function as well as aesthetic appeal.

I also like smackie because it is inward directed (this is how I feel) rather than outward directed (I smashed you or you are disgusting).

Getting a jump on the next ballot (in Aug-Oct), I am currently working on :bemused: . That smilie might span parts of :dubious: , :TongueInCheek: , :ShakesHead: and even :uhoh: . It is also (I hope) an emotional softener, rather than a provoker.