Disable Auto Smiley?

**AetheLove** · 09-29-11, 12:19 AM

I've always found the auto-smilies to be annoying, but I figured it was a cultural thing and I was a minority. I disable them when I remember, and can go back and re-edit a post when I forget and the site substitutes some damned animated gif for my purposeful and well-formatted text.

However, last Saturday this happened:

Originally Posted by PvtPrivate

Good games IS

... and I'm wondering if - instead of inadvertently giving the "Fuck You" smiley to a clan who was our guest and who someone was only trying to say "good games" to - we could make the auto-smiley an opt-in feature rather than something which has to be disabled every single post.

Also, am I alone in this or does anyone else find it annoying? Actual real text emoticons have a certain charm to them. The little gifs have always seemed gimmicky to me. I don't have a problem with people who use and like them, but acronyms and abbreviations aren't rare and it seems strange to me that the default for the site is to screw them up. For example, this one has got me a few times:

TL

R

Cheers,

AetheLove

**FragRaptor** · 09-30-11, 10:30 AM

I usually find that if you are smart about how you type and actually hit the preview button before you post you usually provide a better more intelligent post.

And if you ever need to fix anything there is always the edit button

**Cojiro** · 09-30-11, 10:42 AM

heres what i say to your feature request

i dont even know HOW you made that smiley. i just copied and pasted cuz its cool

**Bunni** · 09-30-11, 11:22 AM

Then just edit your posts and disable smiles, far greater number use them, than those that do not

My droidx > *

**AetheLove** · 09-30-11, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by FragRaptor

I usually find that if you are smart about how you type and actually hit the preview button before you post you usually provide a better more intelligent post.

And if you ever need to fix anything there is always the edit button :)

I usually find that excusing brain-dead design by pointing out that careful users can avoid the pitfalls by spending extra time up front, or spending extra time fixing avoidable errors after they occur, is functionally the same as arguing for the installation of minefields everywhere because metal detectors are available to the general public and aren't really that expensive compared to prosthetics.

You can't preview a reply without going to "advanced" editing.

You can't turn off the effect in the default response mode.

Not everyone here goes back and re-reads their quick responses - if they did, it wouldn't be quick.

I'm asking if it's possible for the site to be set to disable auto-smiley by default. If that's possible, then I'm wondering if it makes sense to do that.

My guess is that this is mostly a matter of setting a balance between users who prefer it on for convenience (because they like and use the smiley gifs and/or pngs) and users who either don't use it or find it annoying. It's possible that this is also a matter of "yeah, I'll get right on that - just as soon as I deal with the hundreds of other things which are way more important."

I provide one data point: me. I click "disable smilies" for every post where (a) I'm in advanced edit mode, and (b) I remember. I haven't seen yet that I can configure my account to always have this option set.

I provide another data point: the case of a user who inadvertently told the (Christian) clan - who we invited to a scrim, who we beat 3 straight rounds, and who specifically requested that we try to provide a family-friendly environment for their younger gamers - to go fuck themselves.

That is: he wanted to say "good games!", and he actually said "FUCK YOU". I think it's reasonable to discuss changing the behaviour of an editor which allows such a thing to happen.

Cheers,

AetheLove

**Vexon** · 09-30-11, 08:02 PM

(:

problem solved

**Bunni** · 10-01-11, 02:20 AM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

I usually find that excusing brain-dead design by pointing out that careful users can avoid the pitfalls by spending extra time up front, or spending extra time fixing avoidable errors after they occur, is functionally the same as arguing for the installation of minefields everywhere because metal detectors are available to the general public and aren't really that expensive compared to prosthetics.

You can't preview a reply without going to "advanced" editing.

You can't turn off the effect in the default response mode.

Not everyone here goes back and re-reads their quick responses - if they did, it wouldn't be quick.

I'm asking if it's possible for the site to be set to disable auto-smiley by default. If that's possible, then I'm wondering if it makes sense to do that.

My guess is that this is mostly a matter of setting a balance between users who prefer it on for convenience (because they like and use the smiley gifs and/or pngs) and users who either don't use it or find it annoying. It's possible that this is also a matter of "yeah, I'll get right on that - just as soon as I deal with the hundreds of other things which are way more important."

I provide one data point: me. I click "disable smilies" for every post where (a) I'm in advanced edit mode, and (b) I remember. I haven't seen yet that I can configure my account to always have this option set.

I provide another data point: the case of a user who inadvertently told the (Christian) clan - who we invited to a scrim, who we beat 3 straight rounds, and who specifically requested that we try to provide a family-friendly environment for their younger gamers - to go fuck themselves.

That is: he wanted to say "good games!", and he actually said "FUCK YOU". I think it's reasonable to discuss changing the behaviour of an editor which allows such a thing to happen.

Cheers,

AetheLove

or we could just delete the 8) smile...

**Guyver** · 10-01-11, 03:46 AM

I like smileys..........

**AetheLove** · 10-08-11, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by Guyver

I like smileys..........

I like them too. I include smilies in some of my posts. When I use them, I prefer to leave them as text and choose not to use the gifs/pngs in my posts, but I don't dislike them. I don't mind when others use them.

It's been a week. I haven't read anything here that makes me think that anyone understands the point I was trying to make, or even cares to. So I guess that's it.

To everyone who read the post - even whoever it was that replied by giving me the finger -

Cheers,

AetheLove