Support the bring back Smilies Campaign

[john morgan]

When I first came here there were many smilies :D , now there are just eight :shock: and all my message smilies have gone. :sad: Nothing is said or discussed the smilies just vanish. From the responses that I have received I know that smilies do work. This forum is all (apparently) about freedom of expresssion. The curtailing of smilie type communications seriously constrains that freedom. The smilies here are neat and clean, I don't think that that importing larger smilies that are several lines high is something that I could support. ;)

So who is responsible and why? :-?

Why do Admin(s) make personal decisions such as removing smilies and impose their preferences on others? :|

This may sound petty or inconsequential but when you are writing a message to a friend and you wish to let them know how valuable they are then reaching for a smilie or two or even three and finding they are not there can be a little irksome. :oops:

Does anyone else need more smilies?

I hope :mrgreen: adds his voice to this campaign.

[alladin]

Support: in the sense that, in absence of body language, eye contact, tone of voice etc ... smilies can do the trick and explain better than words what we mean and help us avoid understandings.

This is most important especially for posters whose mother tongue is not English and may therefore encounter extra difficulties in expressing their opinion and even more, feelings. :D

[arjun]

Does anyone else need more smilies?

Definitely I do require more smilies :D , but the Admin would be in a better position to explain the reasons for reducing the smilies. May be the new software of this forum/site does not allow extensive usage of smilies because of the storage space that it occupies.

[fluffy bunny]

Strong objection; smilies are largely for 9 to 13 years on Yahoo! thrilled with seeing their activities on the internet and incapable of constructing deep and meaningful sentences. They are the bubblegum on the pavement of the internet hiway and only serve to make the user, or at least overuser, imbecilic. They are messy and lower the tone of the forum.

That is my person opinion. What more do you need to say and why don't users just learn the old traditional keystrokes or use text? ;-)

[john morgan]

ex-I has obviously chewed the smiley bubblegum (I hope it was not second hand) and whilst what he says is true to an extent there are many here who find smilies a complement to and not a replacement for intelligent discourse.

I concede both that some may have noticed a higher degree of imbecility in my recent posts and that there is a danger that the bouncy smiley energetic and variously attired smilies that can be found elsewhere could hasten this process. But the smilies that we use here are quite restrained and much less a fast track towards a very sticky end.

Whilst I am very tempted to post a few extreme examples of what ex-I may be talking about I am loth do do this because smilies may in addition to accurately conveying emotion have feelings of their own. ;) Whilst I for one would never give a smiley a hard time there may be at least one person here that would. :sad:

[bansy]

My favorite smily is the "headbanger" one that existed sometime ago.

[fluffy bunny]

... besides, they don't have one for "irony alert".

I think your stage should be more stable, Bhai. Not so many emotions.

[bkti-pit]

This is most important especially for posters whose mother tongue is not English and may therefore encounter extra difficulties in expressing their opinion and even more, feelings. :D

I am one of them! :oops:

[mr green]

:mrgreen: :shock: :-? :| ;) :oops:

[john morgan]

Dear :mrgreen:

I am sorry that your well known wide range of emotion was somewhat curtailed in your last post.

Normally just one of Bansy's headbanger smilies would be sufficient in our fight for smilie freedom of expression, but the deep rooted smilie prejudice that exists here probably means that many headbangers may be necessary to elicit change.

Perhaps I am on the wrong tack here (headbangers) as some smilies that I personally know have suggested that kindness is a often a fine balm for smilie haters. Having had their fill of benign dictatorships and suffering fools gladly, the smilies have indicated :mrgreen: that you are just the man for expressing in such measure as to elicit a change of heart in all smilie slighters resident here. Just as much good will as is necessary for everyone to get their smilies back.

:mrgreen:, whatever you decide I'd like to pass on the message that your endorsing this campaign has made a real and lasting difference to all smilies and that none of them will hold it against you if you find you have insufficient time to further their cause.

The smilies also say -

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!

[pilatus]

Dear all,

I'd just like to add my support to the "more than 8 smileys" campaign (despite ex-l's headteacher-like comparison of us smiley-lovers with bubblegum chewing teenyboppers). bansy - I am intrigued about the "headbanger" smiley - can you point me at an example?

Best wishes to you all, ;)

[john morgan]

Hello Pilatus,

If there was a gold star smiley I'd award you one ;)

Student to student of course :D

[bansy]

I am intrigued about the "headbanger" smiley - can you point me at an example?

I am afraid it's was way back in the early days of this website and I think john (the other one, not john morgan) also enjoyed using it more, and I used it a few times. It was a smily hitting its own head against a brick wall, a sort of "Duh, I must be going mad to believe or to have done this". :oops:

[john morgan]

Bansy is quite correct in as much as I have never used a headbanger smiley. Thinking over the short time I've been here there have been quite a few moments when a headbanger would have been a most pertinent resource for both myself and others - including now! :shock:

For a campaign to be successful there has to be a measurable outcome, in this case it is an increase in smilies. The person who has reduced the number of smilies from eight to seven merits a "Headbanger" whilst they no doubt are sniggering or :D possibly being :oops: would be more appropriate. The loss of the Mr Green icon could be interpreted as a malicious attempt to undermine this campaign, but we are higher minded than that. Perhaps requesting the addition of a "good spanking" icon is most appropriate here ;)

[tete]

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: Hu-ru-rah!

I don't want to grow up :shock:.