Inappropriate Emoticons

[kismet]

Where is the steaming pile emoticon?

[Tellie]

I agree with Gord. Why I think we should also have X-ray body scans and pat downs before we come on board CF.
Come on Gord. I love ya man, but sometimes even your friends have to put their arm around you and say "lighten up a bit bro, it ain't that important"

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

This is turning into another anchorgunmonomultigasordiesel thread.

On of the 4 agreements......Don't take anything personally.

I would rather see emoticons than some obscure Acronym

Are you talking about me?

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

I must say though, when I read Gord's earlier comment suggesting that I go someplace else if I don't play by his rules, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Somebody that owns this forum must benefit from my being here, because I now receive ads from vendors here at home, who I personally don't patronize. So is my presence here being marketed.?

You're onto us, Blue Stocking . . . Cruisers Forum was created with the sole intention of getting business interests on Bermuda to use Google AdSense to place their unheeded ads on your computer screen. I don't think you fully appreciate how difficult that was to engineer.

It's like Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan, in which all of human history is a mere manipulation leading to a single purpose - to deliver a replacement part for a spacecraft stranded in our solar system. (I love Vonnegut.) See: The Sirens of Titan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TaoJones

[Chief Engineer]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Are you talking about me?

I was surprised when I did a search for TIOFUR and nothing came up.

It made me chuckle.....

[speakeasy]

Originally Posted by Bash

I'm suddenly eager for my students to return from Thanksgiving break; I think I'm going to assign this thread next week. I'm teaching a rhetoric class this quarter, and we've been getting into Reader Response Theory the past two weeks. In essence, and here I over-simplify, RRT posits that a text takes its meaning from the act of being read, not from authorial intent. What I write is insignificant in terms of how you choose to read something I've written. Compare the different readings I've been given by hummingway, boatman61 and, ultimately, IdoraKeeper.

The significance of emoticons is that they signal intent in a medium that often ambiguous in terms of a text's exigence--the question of why the writer picked up the pen. Was I joking when I wrote that first post, or was I serious? We don't really know. All we know for certain is that the lack of emoticons (or other signifyers such as "lol") made the text more difficult to interpret.

I am convinced that it's healthy to chat about how we chat, and even to argue about how we argue. We are not only constrained by the medium in which we conduct our forum, but also by the rules under which we agree to play.

That said, hummingway's interpretation that I'm arguing "that very few abuse the emoticons" is certainly....

[SimonV]

WTF..I read the whole thing.. Will it end

[Khagan1227]

Originally Posted by GordMay

I think that all of the smart-ass & insulting emoticons* should be removed from the forum. They all convey ideas & attitudes that we wouldn’t permit if overtly expressed in words.

*Ie:

Personally, I use emoticons to express some humanity that is otherwise lacking in the internet world in general and CF in particular. It might just be me, but sometimes I can't tell the intent a poster uses in their messages, but a smiley face sure makes the difference for me.

I don't believe I have personally used them as a tool to attack a CF users and if someone believes I have, you have my sincere apology. I have seen at least one person use the popcorn smilely to inject a little humor into an otherwise heated debate. I try to use them to poke fun at myself, not other users.

While I respectfully disagree with Gord, he is a moderator and I'll follow whatever rules that exist for the forum.

Keith

Peace

[thinwater]

I assumed the OP was a troll to boost the click count. Simplest explanation.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I assumed the OP was a troll to boost the click count. Simplest explanation.

Gord is one of the most respected members that has been on the CF forum since it's first days, as well as being and original Moderator/Admin. He's set me right on many occasions but I do disagree with him on this one!

[Noname1]

delmarrey post 85 has is right.
Most human communication is non-verbal. emoticons help fill in what is missing from purely textual communication.

Was my use of an emoticon here was abusive? If so to whom?

Originally Posted by michaeldsusa

I'm glad for you that you have decided just to go ahead and do it.
I won an 11 hr tow from the USCG in El Caribe due to my hopeful (wishful?) thinking the chainplates had just another 100 miles in them. I mean it was only 100 mile island hop. What could possibly go wrong?
I will never have SS chainplates or anything else SS I can avoid on my next boat. Everdur or titanium from now on.

I think with no additional word count I acknowledge to the brethren I was a fool and ask I be berated no further.

Now if someone finds it nessessary to point out quoting oneself is considered bad form I simply say

[Johnathon123]

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by zeehag

but is same word twice-- i think he gets one more chance......

Perhaps it is all a matter of not limiting ourselves to the approved emoticons. Nevertheless, I find some of the "approved" emoticons to be offensive such as posted on top, but you won't see me object.

[aegean adrift]

awww, I missed the meta-communication party!

It would be nice to have a wider array of emoticons, but I'm not sure it's possible or desirable to enforce fundamentalist Non-Violent Communication anywhere.

Someone used the head-smashing-into wall emoticon in response to one of my first posts here, but that said a lot about them and nothing about me. If that's how he felt at the moment, it was his choice to express those sentiments.

Perhaps an etiquette-hell-style sub-forum, with Gord as moderator, about communication and good taste? I'd be the first to frequent it.

[Wand]

Originally Posted by Joli

Trim, they make bilge alarms.

Just for the record, the above quote (it seems) is the post which motivated Gord's OP for this thread. The post raised Trim50's ire and it got a bit testy. FWIW, my view is that the Joli post was offensive and the reaction understandable (although it'd be wiser to have ignored it). The headbanger emoticom should be reserved as a comment on one's own behaviour or actions.

But that aside, I think it is the moderator's (editor's) role to foresee the problem with the original Joli post and delete it. And having said that, I know Gord just how easy it is for these things to slip through.