As I mentioned I my email, I don’t recommend getting your hopes up for any fast action. Although I see that again there is talk of adding a couple more, so cross your fingers.
It’s actually been over 2 years now since I offered my first smilie.
I sent it to Cecil, saying I thought the board could uses some smilies with more character, less generic than the happy faces.
I made a mockup of what I meant, showing the cartoon style from the column as a smilie. It got a “we’ll see, when we have more time” response. And I’m still waiting to hear the final word.
I haven’t actually posted here in some time, and only get reminded of the question when someone like yourself finds and old thread and writes me. So thanks for the wake-up call. Somebody please let me know if the topic comes up again sometime. I’ll keep posting the suggestions I get as long as people are interested.
The post by tshirts, which seems to be more of a discussion on board administration, is being moved to The BBQ Pit, which is the proper forum for such posts.
tshirts - The thing is, smilies have never been a big priority at the SDMB. We have come up with a plan on when/how to add new smilies, which is described in ATMB.
Let me make a recommendation concerning emoticons:
As I have asserted earlier, the core mission of the SDMB is to fight ignorance and make wisecracks.
Any smilie that persists for longer than a week becomes an old joke and is thus unsuitable for wisecracking.
Generally speaking, a new smilie should act to convey an idea that isn’t conveyed particularly well with words. More specifically a good smilie will usually act as an emotional softener, in one way or another.
Softening can be advanced by making anger appear jokey: so I’m not ruling out a (nonanimated) smashie.
I plan to email my own creation, :dubious: to the mods, purely for egotistical reasons. But my enthusiasm for it has wanned over time, since I don’t think it softens any written point particularly well. And dubiousness seems easy enough to convey with words. (OTOH, if 25 gizillion smilies are opted in, that would be another matter.)
I do, however, see some scope for milder variants of :rolleyes: . (Although, in a pinch a winky can often suffice, admittedly.)
I hope that variants of “wry” are submitted.
Thanks again to tshirts, both for putting up the site and for his patience with my multiple attempts at “dubious”.
Hm. Maybe somebody could design an :examine: emoticon, with (perhaps) a small Sherlock Holmes and magnifying glass. That might be a friendlier form of :rolleyes: .
Eh, it was just an offhand comment, Arnold, I’m not sure how strongly I feel about this. Besides, like I said, I almost never use 'em, so I’m probably the last person who should be making official suggestions.
That’s fine. I didn’t want this thread in the pit. It wasn’t a criticism, just background to keep the eager beavers from submitting to me countless things they worked long and hard on (and believe me, it is long and hard work making a smilie that fits into a little box but still has some facial expression, plus all the technical details of blank backgrounds, etc.)
Now that you mention it though, and since you’ve dragged me into the Pit, I can point out a couple of things that irritate me about your “plan”.
First, you say “it has never been a big priority”. Priority or no, they were promised on multiple occasions over the years, as the threads provided on my web page will confirm. So it’s not a question of priority as much as reasonableness. When an admin says “weeks” people get enthused, but when weeks become years, the enthusiasm is bound to turn into discouragement.
Second, making people submit things again is bureaucratic.
I have already done the considerable work of collection the submissions from all the prior threads so people can see them together. You have the website in front of you, and you can tell in seconds which smilies you like or don’t like. Making them arrive by email just adds work for me and saves you nothing, in fact probably makes things harder for you as well.
Although I don’t come to this board as much as I once did, and have long since stopped making smilies of my own, I do intend to keep that page open, for the simple reason that not all suggestions will make the grand transition to the official smilie list, but they are still worthy object for smilie fans to look at and consider when they are dreaming up new creations. It’s a fun project to do at least a few times in every poster’s life, and it’s a shame when they have to disappear without being seen again.
tshirts - your original post sounded like a complaint to me. I may have been mistaken. Since you mention now that you’re irritated, then the thread can remain here.
As you point out, the staff had mentioned in the past that we would add smilies. We haven’t done so until now. Your frustration is acknowledged. Please remember that we are a volunteer, unpaid staff. You can continue to mention the “broken promises” if you want but I don’t find that very constructive.
Re-submitting - I am asking people to submit smilies directly to me via e-mail because that eliminates the step of having them sent to you via e-mail, you putting them on the webpage, and then notifying me of that fact. I can’t just go take the smilies on your webpage and add them to the submission list - some of them don’t fit our criteria (too large or animated), others have been resubmitted by the original poster so I don’t want to put them twice in the “polling list”. I’m not going to decide myself which ones I don’t like, because the new smiley will not be chosen by me but by popular vote. Also the poster that originally sent the smiley to you may have changed their mind, or may want to redraw it or improve it before they put it up for a vote, to increase their chances.
As far as calling the process bureaucratic - you say that like it’s a bad thing.
BTW. Max Torque’s link is a emoticon goldmine. (Make sure you click one of the smilies on the left to link to the various pages). Perhaps Polycarp can find something that fits the “tongue in cheek” or “irony” concept. I think I may have found one that says, “Uh oh”, to me.
Posters are encouraged to look at tshirt’s site and forward candidates to Arnold as per the process outlined in the Arnold’s link. (The forms! The paperwork! The triple redundancy processing! ' )
Oh, and it’s just as well this thread is in the Pit; it does concern discussion of SD administration, of which smiley selection is one component.
I just saw that someone submitted a Sherlock smilie to the submission page.. I think it’s great. Might I suggest though, that it be named “:Inspector:”? (Thanks to the submitter.)
Please remember that I too am unpaid. But like those who have handled them People Pages and the Teeming Millions magazine, I find that the process is very encouraging. Lots of talented people have things to offer, and I’d like to see their efforts recognized. I feel certain that you have spent more time and effort answering once or twice than you would have spent to just add all of them. Those that have no real “audience” will never be used except by their authors, but so what? That was the fate of ;j one of my favorites, to see, because he seems happy, but I can’t think how to employ him in a post.
And complaints about “broken promises” (your term, not mine,you will note), I think it is not asking too much to be reminded of promises every year or so. That hardly makes me a nag, I hope. Like an annual review at work. Some plans were never completed, but they do get mentioned anyway. So I think it is constructive enough for posting purposes; a lot of posts are less constructive.
My wishes are few. I just want a singing smiley so when I post, “Cause YOU light up my life!” people would know I’m caterwauling. I hate when people don’t realize I’m caterwauling.
We don’t intend on adding all of them, only one at a time at periodic intervals.
MHO: Staff member posts “we are starting a submission process for smilies.” Constructive answer - “I would like to propose the ones at this webpage.” Unconstructive answer - “You guys promised me that a long time ago, and never did anything about it.”
MHO: If people create smilies, that’s constructive.
If people suggest and describe new smilies, that’s constructive.
If I help them work out the details, that’s constructive.
If I put them where people can view them that’s constructive.
MHO: If I tell them “I don’t recommend getting your hopes up for any fast action. Although I see that again there is talk of adding a couple more, so cross your fingers” that’s being realistic.
MHO: What’s not constructive? Things that don’t construct. That prevent construction. That block things that have long been constructed from being used. That delay and deny and frustrate for no particular advantage. That’s what you do when you slow something for no particular reason. You know how simple adding those icons is, and how adding 3 or 50 or 100 is all done at a single sitting. That’s what you do when you cut the number of submissions after asking for them, and setting the number permitted below the number already suggested! And now after you’ve made me spend hours rebuilding the smilies to shave 1 or 2 pixels and remove a harmless twinkle from a halo you have the nerve to add a new revelation “We don’t intend on adding all of them, only one at a time at periodic intervals”.
If you’d said that in the first place, it would have saved a lot of time.
MHO: The world has creative people and bureaucrats. The “constructive” force is with the former. The “destructive” force is with the latter. Legitimate delays are part of any endeavor, but dealing in bad faith isn’t. When does a simple missed promise become bad faith? When you blame the people who were on the receiving end of the promise.
MHO: Don’t put any of mine on your voting list. They are hereby withdrawn from your contest. I really don’t like the games you play. You have not been dealing honorably with any of the submitters, and adding more and more hurdles is just the latest example of that.
MHO: You have just been judged and found wanting. Shape up.
Has anyone else spent time on a board with a gazillion smilies? Talk about conversation killers. I always feel like I was in a schoolyard.
Especially animated ones. It’s incredible how many people think that they substitute for conversation. Or discussion. Who needs to articulate their point of view when they can just dump a load of bricks on your head?
Smilies should have a purpose. Jewish guy aside, the ones we have at the moment do their job. As far as I can see, the only gap that could be filled based on the submissions is “dubious”. Everything else is fluff that will just detract from the dialogue.
Oh yes - using other peoples’ art in your post is soooooo creative.
(OTOH, if 25 gizillion smilies are opted in, that would be another matter.)
)
That was funny.