Questions

[c9]

Q. Is :-) the new "dotting your I's with a heart?" Or is :-) perfectly normal, and :o) is in fact the new "dotting your I's with a heart?"

Q. Do you think >>:-1 looks like a Klingon?

Comments

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

A: I've been using :o) for quite some time now because :) always looked odd to me. I use it even more since Word suddently stopped converting :) to ☺ automagically on both of my machines. I think I like :-) better though.

A: I have no clue what a Klingon looks like.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

:-) is absolutely necessary for people with a dry wit. Otherwise, people take what you say the wrong way. Quite often, :-) isn't enough of a disclaimer anyway.

Many a flamewar could've been averted by judicious use of :-)

I also like :~), but seldom bother with it. You get extra points if you can close a parenthetical statement (like this :-).

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

I'm always bothered by how to close a parenthetical statement that ends in a smiley - ":-))" never looks right, but ":-)" isn't well formed.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Alas, instant messaging software is eating that last point. If I type "(blah blah :-)" it ends up being incorrectly closed due to the helpful software.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

I cannot tell you how many times I have fretted over how to to close parenthetical statements containing smily faces.

Wait, yes I can. Approximately 23.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

A: You don't dot capital Is, silly.

A: It looks a bit like Rosie Perez.

[cap-hill-latte.livejournal.com]

If the smiley is intended to convey the fact that, if speaking aloud, the speaker would be smiling while making the statement it’s easy - "(...blah blah :o).)". But if the smiley is intended to convey the fact that, if speaking aloud, the speaker would post-fix the statement with a smile I think you’re left with the syntactically correct, but visually displeasing “(...blah blah. :o))”.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness yes. Even amongst "basic smileys" there are several varieties.

http://www.muller-godschalk.com/basic.html

http://www.muller-godschalk.com/celebrities.html

...that last one includes Marge Simpson: ######:o)

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Of course, smileys go back much further than the Internet, so there are smiley purists who insist on a very particular set of very specific smilies that one should never deviate from using. :-/

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

IM software that converts my smilies drives me batty. I always turn it off, but then I can't understand all those bastardizations that people are using these days like (K).

[c9.livejournal.com]

Further than the Internet?