I just spent about five minutes trying to move an emotion from the side of this “Post a new topic” page and can’t do it. I clicked and dragged, option clicked and dragged, control key and dragged, laid on the floor clicked and dragged, did a Toyota heal click and dragged – where did I go wrong?
< SAD emotion >
BillG
Place your cursor, in the white text entry window, where you want the Emoticon. Mouse click on the one you want, and it will be inserted at the cursor position as a colon/parenthesis/letter etc. The actual icon will not appear until you Preview &/or Submit.
Bill
Why should anyone want to use this pathetic Dysneyland nonesense, or is that what American life is coming to these days ( he asks provocatively ) ?
Andrew, :roll: Life is too 
not to 
however 
or 
or 
or even 
you feel
Christmas and a 
new year to you and yours
Julia C
I think he means “emoticons” and not “emotions,” Andrew, though the point is taken.
I think it’s unfortunate, also, that our writing skills have degenerated to the point at which we need to use emoticons to get an emotion across. I use them myself, so I too am guilty.
Can you imagine reading a book that relied on emoticons?
I am going to impose a moratorium on my own emoticon use. We’ll see how long I last!
Stuart
AndrewK wrote
Why should anyone want to use this pathetic Dysneyland nonesense, or is that what American life is coming to these days ( he asks provocatively ) ?
BillG
OH! Thanx. 
It’s an attempt (somewhat primitive) at making internet correspondence more like a face-to-face conversation. But maybe your conversations consist of flat facial expressions and monotone speech.
I do agree that emoticons and such are corrosive to our verbal skills. But an individual doesn’t need a PhD to use the internet. Luckily the medium is not influenced by Galtonian ideals.
Cheers,
Aaron
I take it all back, Mr Malcomb.
Perhaps emoticons might make more sense of your views on the purchase of old French flutes, whether named or un-named, and pad out your apparant knowledge of the value of Old English flutes for the performance of Irish and Scottish music.
I can,t but help in finding these damned things childish in the extreme, and can only drag down my estimation of any point which is actually being made !
The thought have occured to me that if you tend to use such emoticons as this one: all the time you make a joke, then maybe you’re not all that funny.
That may very well be the case seeing as I am not nearly as invested in such instruments as you. I’m more interested in the performance side rather than the material side of the tradition.
Cheers,
Aaron
I don’t think there should be an entrance exam for the internet or anything like that, Aaron (et al.), and it certainly doesn’t take a doctoral-level understanding of English literature to be able to express emotions using the printed word.
I’m simply reminded of the letters I’ve read that were written . . . oh, even up to the 1940s, the correspondence of regular people. The grammar may not have been perfect, nor the spelling, but they considered it important to consider what they wrote, and even to draft letters before posting them. Heck, my mother, who had no electricity as a child, writes and rewrites email.
I think the spontaneity and ease with which we can communicate on the internet are both blessing and curse.
And the lack of an entrance exam.
On second thought, we do examine drivers before licensure, and look how well that works . . . hmm.
Stuart
People who read books are in a position to read between the lines. A person who reads a book has more commitment to appreciating its content than someone on the internet reading one of a million posts. I realise I am generalising here but would anyone like to lecture graffitists about punctuation and better writing style?
The use of emoticons is often not so much a reflection of the writer’s ineptitude as it is a reflection of what the writer thinks of the comprehension skills of the readership at large. 
Face it, most of you aren’t good writers!
Hi,
Here is a copy of a letter from my Great Grandfather in 1888, you will see no smileys…
The letter goes on about is job in a “hat factory”… Thought you might like the script.
Jon
You are only gloating 'cos you are such a good writer, Glauber, but you still have to resort to childish rubbish at the end !
I’m afraid i’m not a very good writer either. Bloomfield cringes in disgust at my submissions to his literary contests.
Stuart and Talasiga make excellent points. Back in the days when we wrote letters there was more invested into the process. With communication being so much easier and accesssible it does seem a bit de-valued. Of course that’s provided you lot are actually at the other end of a fiber optic cable not some elaborate hoax.
For a truly nightmarish abuse of emoticons, visit the BobDunsire.com Forums. Not to sell my GHB brethren short, but it’s really quite obscene. Andrew, if you saw it you would start collecting bagpipes… for burning.
Cheers,
Aaron
But surely Bloomfield only writes at such length for his own amusement ? Nobody can write like that and at such length other than to admire himself. Which, of course, would come as no surprise.
The whistle politics site might pass as a mutual admiration exercise, but usually fails as narcissistic !
You keep up your own style, Glauber. If it is punchy enough we can always hope to get through it !