Emoticons- Good or Bad

Rindam felt

-Please someone explain these emoticons to me or stop using them. They are driving me NUTS. What is the meaning of a debate forum. If you cannot word your views dont post. What is the point of all the idiot faces in a post? Atleast know when to use them they are so simple to understand, they even come with a definition. Uff-

This is how I felt after going through a few -debates- which could have been a source of intelligent, possibly mature discussion but those ended up being a little discourteous if I may. After feeling like that for a while I decided to post this debate topic.

I personally never used Yahoo or the chat at all so am a little rusty in using emoticons, I have been using some at IF now but I have to think a lot before I use it in place of text. Or to convey the spoken word which conveys a lot more than the written word. Maybe the tone of your voice could have lent the words a different meaning altogether and therefore emoticons to confirm the tone. 

However there are many people who love the funny faces and use them quite often. All at one as well, What does this mean? Are they just used to lend the post some color, is the author or the post going throught these ranges of emotions all at the very same time, or just fooling around?

Am not too much of a Yahoo messenger person, more a text google kind of person. So its possible they irritate me.

How frequently do you think emoticons should be used, they do take up more espace than a word as well in the big picture. What is your view on internet or cyber codes for the use of such images. What do you use emoticons to express, what is the level of emotion you feel when you say you are confused? Are you confused as in -fluid dynamics confused- or confused as in -can't decide what to get for lunch confused-?

Please post your thoughts and  I request please do not be offended and do not be offensive-

Edited by Rindam - 18 years ago

Rindam you stole the words out of mouth .!!!!! 👏 I was planning to post the same topic .

Also i want add , if every one mutually agrees that these emoticons make a serious , intelligent , and interesting debates sound stupid . Should i go ahead and edit these emoticons if i find them irrelevantly posted without words to support it ?????

Please Aparna. Thank you if you can, I dont know the forum rules but personally I think I have misunderstood a few posts just because of the emoticons.
If they would be edited I dont know if that changes the person's intent as in tone or just would make me less biased in my reply-

Rindam i am looking for a general opinion . Lets hope the majority feel that way too .

Dear Rindam;
I could not have written any better than you, I personally believe everything has it own use, and emoticons are to convey some special feeling and are to be used infrequently and not as matter of routine in all the posts.

I feel communication is art, somebody may use the emotions and feel that he has conveyed what he wanted to, but the main test is did people reading the communication understood what was meant to be communicated.

I believe the emotions are for things which you cannot convey by writing, if you are feeling sad, then crying emotion comes in handy and it plays it role to the desire effect, however using the entire set of emotions just because they are available is in appropriate and not a communication.
I do agree at least the debate mansion, serious and intelligent topics should be encouraged and it is our duty to act with responsibility and convey to moderators and senior members what you think is appropriate or else the serious of debate mansion would be lost and people will post emotions as per their orientation, liking or even personal preferences.

I would like to compliment you for your felt the responsibility and the need to address this topic to make this better and better, trust me there are many people who feel like you and would appreciate you concern and join you in your fair and objective efforts.

Best Wishes;
Kamlesh.

If the dev team thinks that emoticons are misused or overused, then I suggest posting a general announcement to educate members of its possible negative effects on the quality of posts on this forum.

👏

Originally posted by: Rindam

Rindam felt

-Please someone explain these emoticons to me or stop using them. They are driving me NUTS. What is the meaning of a debate forum. If you cannot word your views dont post. What is the point of all the idiot faces in a post? Atleast know when to use them they are so simple to understand, they even come with a definition. Uff-

This is how I felt after going through a few -debates- which could have been a source of intelligent, possibly mature discussion but those ended up being a little discourteous if I may. After feeling like that for a while I decided to post this debate topic.

I personally never used Yahoo or the chat at all so am a little rusty in using emoticons, I have been using some at IF now but I have to think a lot before I use it in place of text. Or to convey the spoken word which conveys a lot more than the written word. Maybe the tone of your voice could have lent the words a different meaning altogether and therefore emoticons to confirm the tone. 

However there are many people who love the funny faces and use them quite often. All at one as well, What does this mean? Are they just used to lend the post some color, is the author or the post going throught these ranges of emotions all at the very same time, or just fooling around?

Am not too much of a Yahoo messenger person, more a text google kind of person. So its possible they irritate me.

How frequently do you think emoticons should be used, they do take up more espace than a word as well in the big picture. What is your view on internet or cyber codes for the use of such images. What do you use emoticons to express, what is the level of emotion you feel when you say you are confused? Are you confused as in -fluid dynamics confused- or confused as in -can't decide what to get for lunch confused-?

Please post your thoughts and  I request please do not be offended and do not be offensive-

👏 👏 👏 nothing more to say...

I agree with Willows on this account.

e communicate via words and actions.
Since IF conects all of us..and unfortunately none of us can have face to face communication....the emotocons are sort of a substitute..

i mean I am sure u've heard that actions speak more than words...and sometimes..emoticons speak volumes .. for a thought which needs to be expressed.


But yess i agree w/rindam on one count... here in debate section.. many serious topics come off as mere jokes when people quote someone elses posts with --->> 😆 😆
To me this means insult of a gr8 debte/the posters opinion...
or the one who merely posts emoticons has nothign better to say.

I m a yahoo chat regular and seriosuly cannot live without these smilies..but we all have our opinions..and i respect urs too.

Agree with you guys! I guess ur post or thoughts can be misinterpreted if not used correctly.

Originally posted by: Vishesh

Rindam and Willows, yes u said it correctly.

And Aparna, i support u,..
and i think, u can go ahead..

there is a thread
http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4420

in which Vijay wrote abt the Forums Rules..
"4.Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Finally chatspeak is NOT allowed (e.g. i wan dat, plz fone me). Users consistently abusing this will be warned."

But i think..Aparna ,u don't have to do that often, bcoz Rindam and Willows explained it so clearly, that every user who will read this Topic will surely take care of that himself.
And writing this, now i am thinking that i might have sometimes misused this facility unintentionally, i will take special care abt this in future.
😊

Thx for posting the link by Vijay . I'd like to mention in my recent post"please read before posting " in this section i have mentioned a emoticans without being followed by written words has no meaning by itself . It seems no body understood that .

As per every one agreeing that the excess use of emoticans and chats in this section are making intelligent debates sound stupid . Hereby , i'll edit the post in the last 2 pages and will expect every member to comply with our request. Thanks !!😊