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Forum Functions & Functionality: Technical Problems & Known Issues

If a post of mine received an angry-face emoji, I'd believe that the person was permanently angry with me. :(

TL;DR: I'd rather the emojis not be brought back.
 
Steven said:
If a post of mine received an angry-face emoji, I'd believe that the person was permanently angry with me. :(
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You can't/shouldn't think like that on here really.
I've had people want to banish me to eternal damnation on one thread and just a few minutes later had quite a jovial conversation with them on another.
Apart from Gordon.
He holds grudges forever.
 
The trouble with use of emojis is that they're just shorthand - the context of usage is important. The use of 'thumbs-down' or 'angry face' is a problem because you can't tell if it's a response to the poster or the response to the content of the post.
F'r instance: an item about a person being imprisoned for animal abuse, with the poster saying that the prosecution shouldn't have gone ahead. A thumbs-down might imply that the responder agreed with the poster - the prosecution was bad. It might also imply that they disagreed with the poster's assertion.
Emojis are shorthand - sometimes the meaning is obvious, but a lot of the time it's better to express yourself clearly.
 
escargot said:
Think of it as when the whole class is punished for one kid's misbehaviour.
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As I recall it was one woman, Endlessly Amazed, who took offence at the ‘laugh’ emoji over something trivial. She then fell out with me over something so trivial I’ve forgotten what. She then left the premises over ‘anti American’ attitudes which only she detected, & has not been seen since.

I’d be interested to know how many other complainants there were.
 
hunck said:
As I recall it was one woman, Endlessly Amazed, who took offence at the ‘laugh’ emoji over something trivial. She then fell out with me over something so trivial I’ve forgotten what. She then left the premises over ‘anti American’ attitudes which only she detected, & has not been seen since.

I’d be interested to know how many other complainants there were.
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Rings a bell. :nods:

The anti American claim, I'd heard that before on this very board. Baffling. Nobody was burning the flag and posting photos.
 
escargot said:
Rings a bell. :nods:

The anti American claim, I'd heard that before on this very board. Baffling. Nobody was burning the flag and posting photos.
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Tsk! You have a short memory. :chuckle:
 
hunck said:
As I recall it was one woman, Endlessly Amazed, who took offence at the ‘laugh’ emoji over something trivial. She then fell out with me over something so trivial I’ve forgotten what. She then left the premises over ‘anti American’ attitudes which only she detected, & has not been seen since.

I’d be interested to know how many other complainants there were.
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I thought that episode was very out of character for her. We'd had her tagged as quite thoughtful and calm-headed until she stormed out. Perhaps she'd just had a bad day or three and pride prevented her returning to admit as much.

To be clear though, there were multiple 'emoticon incidents' involving multiple members during just those years since we rebranded. If I had to generalise, I'd say that many of them involved the posting of emoticons to encapsulate sentiments that would be unarguably judged trolling or flaming if expressed in text.

There was also a problem with the emoticon menu loading comparatively slowly for some members. I never experienced any slow-down myself, but it irked some people enough for Stu to decide to cull the selection quite seriously even before the final cut to two.
 
I use (far too many) smilies...because I'm so often uncertain if I've expressed my feelings sufficiently well enough for my writing's tone to be understood correctly. Seriously, I would - if it weren't deemed so unserious and immature - use smilies even in 'official' correspondence, with bank managers and the like; such is my paranoia about interpretation.
 
It looks as though I've missed out on whatever it was that EA interpreted as "anti-American". It's puzzling to me, as it seems we are well tolerated here, especially considering our odd and persistent tampering with the English language. Not to mention the more odious cultural baggage we inflict on the rest of the world's people, who generally just want to mind their own business.
 
Austin Popper said:
It looks as though I've missed out on whatever it was that EA interpreted as "anti-American". It's puzzling to me, as it seems we are well tolerated here, especially considering our odd and persistent tampering with the English language. Not to mention the more odious cultural baggage we inflict on the rest of the world's people, who generally just want to mind their own business.
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Yup, this is a British messageboard. We don't have a duty to uphold American culture or values. American posters certainly don't need to take it upon themselves to defend them. It's unnecessary and weird.

Cultures have their own obsessions which others can't necessarily understand.

My take is that Americans might for example assume Brits take a certain benign view on our royal family, when we actually hold a huge range of attitudes ranging from sycophancy to guillotines.

Conversely, we Brits can't understand how Americans go about their daily lives without thinking about guns; whether they own them or they don't but are afraid of others carrying them.

It's reasonable to be able to put forward such a point in a discussion without being accused of xenophobia.
 
Floyd1 said:
Yes.
I actually think it was a good move to go to just the like and love reactions.
People would often give angry facYEses, or down thumbs, but not explain why they disagreed with a post.
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I'm on another forum thta uses the same software and on there, they have sad, hug (care) and laugh reaction emojis, I'd love to have that here. Feels wrong to like a post about someone dying.
 
Yithian said:
I thought that episode was very out of character for her. We'd had her tagged as quite thoughtful and calm-headed until she stormed out. Perhaps she'd just had a bad day or three and pride prevented her returning to admit as much.

To be clear though, there were multiple 'emoticon incidents' involving multiple members during just those years since we rebranded. If I had to generalise, I'd say that many of them involved the posting of emoticons to encapsulate sentiments that would be unarguably judged trolling or flaming if expressed in text.

There was also a problem with the emoticon menu loading comparatively slowly for some members. I never experienced any slow-down myself, but it irked some people enough for Stu to decide to cull the selection quite seriously even before the final cut to two.
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There was a huge animated 'Leatherman' smiley that took up space and wasn't funny.
 
escargot said:
There was a huge animated 'Leatherman' smiley that took up space and wasn't funny.
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This one?
Spliff.gif
 
Austin Popper said:
It looks as though I've missed out on whatever it was that EA interpreted as "anti-American". It's puzzling to me, as it seems we are well tolerated here, especially considering our odd and persistent tampering with the English language. Not to mention the more odious cultural baggage we inflict on the rest of the world's people, who generally just want to mind their own business.
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I think the poster in question, who was always thoughtful and articulate, just got a bit tired of some of the usual very broad and generally inaccurate cultural assumptions we have in the UK about the US and which our media tends to perpetuate.

What I will say is that all the Americans I've met have been unfailingly polite, reasonable, considerate people, including some that I'd have disagreed with fundamentally on some (for example) political issues.
 
hunck said:
What am I supposed to take away from this - a smile or laugh needs no explanation but what meaning is intended by it?
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:dunno: In the eye of the beholder?
 
Just wondered why I'm not getting notifications in my email ? Have I done something odd when I've been using the forum and clicked something?
 
escargot said:
Yup, I believe it was there as a private joke.
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I get irritated by 'private jokes' in a public forum.
Firstly, it might be hilarious to those 'in the know' but puzzling and nonsensical to everyone else, and secondly I for one tend to take people literally unless the humour is obvious (to me); so such twaddle drives me away - what's the point of following a thread if it's broken up with nonsensical posts?
 
Iris said:
Just wondered why I'm not getting notifications in my email ? Have I done something odd when I've been using the forum and clicked something?
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I'm away from home, but I'll check whether there's an issue at this end and get back to you.
 
Stormkhan said:
I get irritated by 'private jokes' in a public forum.
Firstly, it might be hilarious to those 'in the know' but puzzling and nonsensical to everyone else, and secondly I for one tend to take people literally unless the humour is obvious (to me); so such twaddle drives me away - what's the point of following a thread if it's broken up with nonsensical posts?
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*Cough* Cromer...
 
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