Ha!! Talk about freedom of expression - I just got the following error message:
"THE FOLLOWING ERROR(S) WERE FOUND
You have posted a message with more emoticons that this board allows. Please reduce the number of emoticons you've added to the message"
I tried to answer this with Usenet-style response, but there doesn't seem to be any easy way to answer in the middle of your post. This strikes me as a large disadvantage. I apparently have too limited experience of the brave new world of fancy quoting and smilies... LOL [insert 10 random smilies] Apart from anything else, I understand 'smiley', <g>, and 'unsmiley', but that's about all.
Well, I don't think smilies present an actual accessibility problem, but "font size"[font=Book Antiqua] and suchlike probably do.
Perhaps we just have to agree to differ - I'm afraid I really simply can't understand this next paragraph, for example:
JP> Yes, actually I do [like smilies]. For example, I cannot tell -at all- what your emotional state is by reading through any of your posts. I don't know if you are calm, angry, or homicidal. I feel like you are mad, and as a result it makes me angry. Perhaps this is because of my father's Greek influence, or the fact that I'm a former US Marine.
If I ask - "How do I cause CSS to do such and such in a robust way?" - my emotional state can be assumed to be that of a person who, not knowing how to cause CSS to do such and such in a robust way wishes to know how, and is in expectation of learning. What sort of emotion would one want to display along with such a question?
>> Nonetheless, your lack of desire to demonstrate emotion will illicit strong emotions in some people. My question is, if you could control that with a simple smiley, why wouldn't you?
Sorry, you've lost me there. I should _control_ other people's strong emotions caused by my not using smilies, by uh, using a smiley. Oh, OK:
me>> Do you think they make it easier for the people who post answers here to help questioners?
JP>> Maybe. We are not dealing with machines. Humans have emotions. And most people are already afraid to approach "experts" when they feel ignorant of a subject. In real life you can let people know you are approachable by giving a simple smile and being courteous. But here the
only equivalent is an emoticon.
Leaves the total mystery of how people managed to write letters for millennia, doesn't it?
>>> No matter how carefully you choose your words they can be misinterpreted 100 ways. But a smiley face is universally understood. So a shy person may feel more comfortable asking a question if they can impart some emoticon of humility or deference in the process. This is quite important in MANY cultures.
But I can think of lots of ways one could help people ask questions - let them give themselves self-appointed status - "Expert", "Normal meddler", "Newbie", whatever. This might add a lot of information, and make it easier for the shy (not that the previous board's experience suggests to me that shyness is much of a problem). Smilies certainly won't help me understand a poster's emotional state, because I have a policy of ignoring blob as much as possible.