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Smileys versus emotions (low priority rant) ;-)

Einfallspinsel

Can we either make this forum's smileys more expressive, or at least improve the descriptions? Maybe the admin wanted the descriptions to merely describe the icon. But wouldn't it be more valuable to explain which emotion the icon conveys?

Cool 01 -- "cool": Guess this icon makes sense.
Cry 02 -- "cry": This icon is clear. What about describing it as "sad"?
Embarassed 03 -- "embarrassed": Did the icon fall asleep with a cig and set itself on fire…? Shouldn't the eyes be half-closed to the side or downwards for embarrassment?
Foot in Mouth 04 -- "foot in mouth": Description is quite cryptic. What about "shocked"?
Frown 05 -- "frown": This icon looks rather "worried". #16 is totally more frowning than #05.
Innocent 06 -- "innocent": This one is clear.
Kiss 07 -- "kiss": Guess the icon is clear. What about "affectionate", "loving"?
Laughing 08 -- "laughing": The one is clear. Maybe describe it as "cheerful?"
Money Mouth 09 -- "money mouth": How many people want to convey they feel like an Incredibly Cheerful Hulk? Why money? Why green? US dollars? Why mouth? I don't get it? Can we replace this by something meaningful?
Sealed 10 -- "sealed": As in "my mouth is sealed", "no comment"…? What about "sighing" or "frustrated"?
Smile 11 -- "smile": This icon is clear. Maybe describe it as "happy"?
Surprised 12 -- "surprised": This icon looks like "yawning" / "tired" / "disinterested" to me. Can't put my finger on what is missing for "surprised".
Tongue Out 13 -- "tongue out": Description is slightly redundant. What about "cheeky", "teasing"?
Undecided 14 -- "undecided": This icon says to me "Eeeew… I'm supposed to eat WHAT?!?!?" Can the undecidedness be made to look more neutral/questioning, and less disgusted?
Wink 15 -- "wink": This is the most unwinking smiley I have ever seen, LOL… Why are the eyes just two pixels? Please make it more visibly wink. What about describing it as "just kidding"?
Yell 16 -- "yell": Why is this "yell" when the mouth is closed? What about "annoyed", "angry", "mad"…?

I know this is subjective, but I don't want to be conflicted about using a smiley that is labelled with something different than what I think it means. If others disagree, I'll go with what the majority says.

PS: And why does the window say "Use left and right arrows to navigate." Does that only work in certain browsers? It doesn't navigate anything for me.

  • @some one : Hah! So I'm not the only one who thinks that.

    @Amy : I like (the standard set of) smileys *because* they are not real faces. They are simple, always the same, have mouse-over descriptions... They are really just a pictographic shortcut for saying "and I feel sad/happy/etc about this". They are more efficient than real faces, even you could just read the mouse-over text.

    One colleague (NT) drew a happy and sad smiley on sticky notes and he displays one or the other on his cubicle, so his neighbours know whether they can disturb him, or whether he is busy and stressed out!

  • Einfallspinsel said:

    Can we either make this forum's smileys more expressive, or at least improve the descriptions? Maybe the admin wanted the descriptions to merely describe the icon. But wouldn't it be more valuable to explain which emotion the icon conveys?

    I know this is subjective, but I don't want to be conflicted about using a smiley that is labelled with something different than what I think it means. If others disagree, I'll go with what the majority says.

     i totally get what you are saying it for

    im an nt and i  had trouble with a couple of them, they aint the clearest faces

    and for a site thats based on an issue like autism it does seem a wee bit strange its not that clear , expressive or varied, i think they are older and thats why they dont have as much variety, actually to be honest i expected this site to be a wee bit more 'up to date' than it is (no offense to mods or anything just being honest Smile)

  • I never use smilies.  After what scorpion pointed about about why we are all here I worked out why. I never look at faces offline (completly never) so, why would I want to make faces online? 

    If someone uses a smily then I simply egnore it because I am very likely to get the meaning wrong anyway. So, maybe it would be better to insted of having a smily that is a smily face or a frowning face that then if you look somwehre is described as 'happy' or 'sad'. It would be better to not have smilies and insted write 'it made me feel sad' or 'i feel sad about this' 

  • Thanks for answering, and for looking into it!

    Jim V, I'm sure you can find a nice set with clearer faces. Money Mouth

  • Howdy - sadly the emoticons came with the WYSIWYG (the box you type in, stands for 'What you see is what you get'). I was kind of surprised myself that Drupal (the system the forum runs from) seems so poorly set up for smilies from the get go. I'm more used to vbulletin/bb code forums where it's a really simple in-build part of management. 

    But we do have a new round of development coming up so be good to explore this and see what options we have.  Ideally I'd love to be able to set the names and control how they appear as well as being to add in some of the more standard public domain smilies that don't look as bizarre as ;)

    So chip in with suggestions, which one's you really dislike, any other naming thoughts and anything missing and I'll look at what rangle out of the system.

  • Agreed, can't believe this hasn't been done or raised before, particularly given where we are, and why we're all here!

    Also:

    Einfallspinsel said:

    Surprised 12 -- "surprised": This icon looks like "yawning" / "tired" / "disinterested" to me. Can't put my finger on what is missing for "surprised".

    What it's missing is raised eyebrows.