So, smilies aside. Did the guy finally find out what those pay grades pay?
And are we allowed to say? Surely we are?
:P
On 10/19/05, Andrew Bowden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Smileys were invented for those people, many of whom have no
> sense of
> irony and wouldn't know a joke if it sat on their face.
> a wild guess but as your email is .co.uk you can't be one of them....
Well that's one definition. I've always opted for the idea that smileys
were invented essentially to help aide understanding. What is obviously
a joke when presented verbally, is not always as clear when written in a
monospaced font on screen! Especially if you have a very dry sense of
humour IMHO.
Unfortunately in recent years they've been hijacked, and it is not
uncommon for them to be used by people as an excuse to be nasty to
people, and "get away with it".
Witness an example I had used against me on a message board over the
summer. Okay, it's paraphrased, but you'll get the idea.
You really are a boring idiot aren't you?
;) ;) ;)
This came half way through a heated debate as I recall, where I was
countering every single one of their propositions with facts that proved
the complete opposite. As such, the intent of their message was very
clear.
But the fact remains. Smileys are often abused, and personally, well
I'm afraid after ten years on internet based communities, I reluctantly
took the attitude that unless I know the person (i.e. have communicated
with them a lot on the past) I don't automatically trust the smileys
they insert in the message. Indeed I've even cut down my use of them
for pretty much those reasons.
Now please note, I'm not levelling any accusations of any wrongdoing
against yourself, or anyone else on this list - just explaining why I'm
sometimes cynical about smileys, and no doubt why others sometimes are
too. It's not about a sense of humour failure and more down to being
jaded by experience.
Anyway, that's all a gross deviation from what this list is here for!
Err... Prototypes! Yeah!
Cheers
Andrew
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