Emoticons

[tomjasz]

There have been a few caustic remarks over the years regarding the use of emoticons. At first, I took it to heart, "they're for kids" and similar comments. However, due to the sometimes often confusing intent of some posts, I find emoticons can clarify intent.

Thoughts?

Regardless I'm in. A post that might be misconstrued can be clarified with a single emoticon.

 

[DaveMatthews]

I know people who do, and people who don't use emojis.
I don't know anybody who is verbally negative about them.
It occurs to me that there are more important things to complain about.

 

[troehrkasse]

I'm a big fan of emoticons. Text-only conversation means we lose out on so much extra stuff, expressions, body language, tone of voice... emoticons don't replace all of that but they do add more depth to the conversation.

 

[tomjasz]

I know people who do, and people who don't use emojis.
I don't know anybody who is verbally negative about them.
It occurs to me that there are more important things to complain about.

For me this was for clarity. This is my favored eBike forum. It’s important to me that my intent is clear Share, help, and learn, this forum has offered all those desires. This post was a curiosity. I only wonder what the best posters hear see emoticons. Not a complaint, a curiosity. Then again, uriouslty killed the cat?

 

[DaveMatthews]

For me this was for clarity. This is my favored eBike forum. It’s important to me that my intent is clear Share, help, and learn, this forum has offered all those desires. This post was a curiosity. I only wonder what the best posters hear see emoticons. Not a complaint, a curiosity. Then again, uriouslty killed the cat?

Not directed at you mate.
I'm on a bunch of guitar forums and ebike as well. I'm an emoji abuser
My comment was directed at those who complain about emoji usage.
All good here.

 

[Alvin1957]

I think they clarify a lot of otherwise failed communications. Kind of like comparing a telephone conversation and a face-to-face conversation with identical words. Like reading something akin to facial expressions. First time my wife and kids explained them to me. I thought these are stupid. Turns out that they are quite useful. Now I have to remind myself to be judicious!

 

[ngl]

emotes have been in use since I first started using the internet at least, in the mid 1990's. Back then on IRC and usenet and so forth it was just text representations, now it's the just same thing but with more variety/emoticons. They can't just be for kids because the people like us who first used them on IRC/etc are nowhere near kid age anymore, it would be an impossible Benjamin Button situation if so! It's nice to add a bit of emotional or sub-textual clarity to text communication. If you come across a caustic remark about such a silly thing, just file it under "another opinion worth ignoring" and keep happily trucking I say

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Seems like enough for me...

 

[theemartymac]

Yup, you can't read intent, body language, or attitude in a short text post. I'm sure we've all seen outrageous reactions to replies that were not meant to be rude or insulting, but ended up reading that way to some folks.

Sarcasm or other tongue-in-cheek references can be particularly hard to convey online. Hence Poe's Law...

And for those who claim they are "immature or unprofessional", I heartily respond; I don't have time for your crap!