Comments on: Comments on 2287

Post number 2287

wendell — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 09:48:05 -0800

According to a halfway-serious survey, one-third of business e-mailers go :-( when they see :-).
They didn't ask whether it was better with the nose :-) or without :) or in semi-profile :^), or if if the toungue should be represented by the lower-case-b :-b or upper-case-P :-P, and what about when you put a smiley inside parentheses (Here's a survey on THAT topic)
Nominee for Most Trivial Topic on MetaFilter in June!

By: harmful

harmful — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 09:57:34 -0800

I'd go ballistic too if I had to read an e-mail this badly formatted. I'm using IE5/Win, and the large fonts are overwriting the text on the prev line. Of course, I initially assumed it was a standard-issue IE rendering crash. Then again, I'm one of the people who was way into USENET at the beginning of the September that Never Ended, and got sick of smileys pretty bloody quickly.

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 10:04:02 -0800

I'm using IE5/Win, and I was surprised how extreme (font size=+3) I had to go to make the dreaded smileys ANY larger than the rest of the text on my screen. Maybe it was something in my personal Metafilter specs. D'oh. My bad. Bygones. Nevermind.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 11:21:13 -0800

well, regardless of the formatting, I want to stand up and defend my smilie usage, darn it! I'm an avid smilier, it's been a part of my online communication since like, '92 when I started BBSing. It's a tool I use to facilitate communication, and I use it avidly. (I also close parenthesis with it all the time, regardless of the other survey's findings :-) At the same time, during business communication? Never! I use smilies like I use slang - where appropriate. Although I probably COULD, I'm not gonna call up the president of the company, force speakerphone and shout "WHAZZUUUUP??!" (and not just because the dead horse has been thoroughly beaten, either!). I use smilies to facilitate conversation, but the stuff I have to talk about in my business email would be hampered, rather than helped, by smilies.

By: corpse

corpse — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 12:02:50 -0800

i hate smiles.

By: FAB4GIRL

FAB4GIRL — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 12:16:47 -0800

I liked that post! Reminds me of someone who smiles a lot! ;-) <---I wink too much.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 12:47:23 -0800

I do use the wink ;-) ... the blecch tongue :-P ... and the mixed feelings :-S emoticons. Not too many pure smileys (except sometimes tossed into the end of a paren block like this :). I don't see anything wrong with it in casual e-mail, certainly not in chat. I'm definitely with cC here: there is a time and a place. A business e-mail is NOT the place. That's not to say that a REPLY to a business e-mail can't be the place, but you certainly want to pick your recipients carefully. Your boss -- maybe. "You want me to pull the router now or should I wait until after everybody's gone home? :)" Your boss's boss ... never! Department memo -- never! Warning to users ... possibly, if you're attempting to be cuddly and accessible. (But who in this business ever is, heh).

By: EricBrooksDotCom

EricBrooksDotCom — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:33:08 -0800

Wendell, I actually had to examine the source codes to see how you made those emoticons overlap the words like that. That was so cool.... Any way, back on topic... I have to use emoticons to convey what I'm trying to say, because no one knows when I'm serious or not. I also find I have to *emphasise* words to get my point across.... Prolific's Caroline and Steven Champeon taught me the evils of HTML mail two years ago. :0)

Otherwise I'd write everything in "Comic Sans" to get my point across

I hope this doesn't make everone write in "Comic Sans" through the rest of the thread... 8^*

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:56:49 -0800

I think everyone else in the world does smileys wrong. =)

By: centrs

centrs — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 14:02:20 -0800

kottke did an emoticon poll back at the beginning of the month... (link opens in new window because i like it that way) :)

By: sudama

sudama — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 15:23:32 -0800

this is my new favorite 'smiley': 8|

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 16:21:27 -0800

Reminds me a little of an "aardman smiley": 8cE (unfortunately the upeer-case-E teeth look awful in any serif font)

By: Sapphireblue

Sapphireblue — Tue, 27 Jun 2000 16:55:49 -0800

the sarcasticon rules :>