How do you feel about those smiley faces everyone sticks on the end of sentences?

They drive me insane :(

I think they're cute.:)

I think they are useful, but why stop there? There are a whole host of emotional states that can't be conveyed by a emoticon alone. I think a new standard of html tags would do the trick.

I like emoticons of all types, just not used in excess.

I'll bet you knew I was going to say that...
I like em.. can you tell? I have a .bmp I use as a background on all my computers (home and work) of :) it annoys people to no end..

Oh no! :( I tried placing 'sarcasm' tags around the last sentance of my previous comment, but they are ignored (by Netscape anyway).

I like emoticons as : ) and such but not the graphics because they seem too "loud". I've been on the net since I was 6 and learned at an early age that I could be misunderstood if I didn't try to convey the emotion behind my words. On here I was laughed at for using them too much and consciously cut down, but I think that resulted in people mistaking my intentions in several cases. I think often they are the only way to make it clear what the emotion behind the thought was.

Sometimes I don't mind them. Sometimes they're annoying. Sometimes I use them myself, but not often.

i'm starting to do it outta habit...

:) :D :(

I'm extremely ambiguous about them. On the one hand, I certainly recognize the problem that they exist to address: our speech contains non-verbal cues (tone of voice, body language, facial expression, etc.) that clarifies our meaning, particularly when we use irony and its dogy little brother, sarcasm. These don't come through in text, so we are in grave danger of being misunderstood. As an example, I almost used a smiley after my comment to Jen that there's a special place in Hell for people who don't like dark chocolate, because I didn't want her to think that I was actually offended. Instead, I relied on the fact that Jen actually knows me, and assumed that she would assume my meaning correctly.

So why am I ambiguous? Because they're cute. Offensively, insufferably cute, and I hate cuteness. I hate those execrable Children with Huge Eyes and just about everything ever produced by the Franklin Mint. Yech. I shudder to think of it all. So, I just can't bring myself to use those adorable little smileys, whether they're ASCII or created by Bill's HTML studliness. It means I have to spend extra time explaining what I actually mean, or reframe my comments to be as unambiguous as I can achieve, but I'm willing to do that. For example, one might think that the over-the-top quality to my ranting about cuteness was a sign of sarcasm. Please be assured that nothing could be further from the truth. I actually, literally shuddered.

steve...try to be a lil more verbose next time...:)

that's an example of sarcasm...with a smiley face to soften the blow

:( That's how I feel about this survey.

steve: you're ambivalent, not ambiguous.

They show emotion. I think it's a perfect way to show how we feel about what we're saying since we're in a situation that makes us unable to share our facial expressions.

I modified this survey, I made it a multiple choice with answers. Please Change your vote if you'd like to select some of them.

The image-translation of smiley on Survey Central remains one of my most favorite things (yes, it makes me feel studly!). I think it's sad that some people are annoyed by them (even the text-only ones). How can your hearts be so dark?

Still I think some people over-use them. If you use them in almost every comment you make, then you may want to re-think your strategy. I was probably one of the ones who laughed at lisashea. I hadn't noticed that you'd cut-down lisa. My impression was that you would just always use them. For example, you'd correct someone or argue a point with someone in a debate and add a smiley. That made no sense to me. I thought perhaps you were using them to say "ha! you're wrong!", which seemed all wrong to me. You weren't making jokes and you weren't kidding (a kidding correction or assertion in a debate?)

I haven't been on the net since I was 6 though, so what do I know.

To me, they mean is "I'm being sarcastic", "I'm kidding", or "that was a joke". By themselves they mean "ha, that was funny" - referring to something someone else said. Using lots of them indicates the amount of emphasis.

bill: I only dislike them sometimes, because my heart is only that dark sometimes. As for why it's so dark...I have this theory that it's like duct tape (or the Force), that it has a dark side and a light side and is holding the universe together. :)

my force is more like an oreo lara, dark on both sides and light in the middle;)

I use them in debates because while some people debate to "drive home a point", I am always doing it in a light-hearted manner. I debate with friends over wine where we're all laughing. I want to let the person talking with me know that, while I am presenting another view, I am not "stern" about it but am "playful". Sadly, from your comments, this was not conveyed properly. I would never, ever, have a "Ha you're wrong" attitude, period. I would have thought you'd have known that about me ... I don't think there IS a universal wrong or right.

As to 6 yr old, that was simply to explain why they are so ingrained in my speech patterns - it was very, very early on in my communication development. It had NOTHING to do with "more right/less right".

lisashea, you are full of **it. You absolutely argue to drive home your point. Then you park the car, walk the point inside, get into bed with it and turn out the light.

EB: I guess you're right.

Hey, Bill, it's time to give elijahblue her star back. (And EB, I never did thank you for correcting me about "get into," so thanks. No sarcasm.)

I kinda like them =0)

I'm ambivilant, in some cases they're quite useful, but mostly they don't add content.

I find them annoying, and I like them :) I used to hate using them but found that people just misunderstood me too often without them

bill - you've just got Microsoft Word envy. I was kind of apalled when Word translated an ASCII smiley into a graphic. I think it's cool that SC does it though.

I would just like to know how to attach them to my comments... =0(

Raindazze... if you use just the colon and the parentheses... it will put it on there for you.

:):);) I finally figured that out...... but thanks they :):):):):):):)

They're very bright (a paraphrase of a line from Moonstruck).

how do you get them ?????

:-) =
8-) =
;-) =
:-p =
:-D =
:-/ =
....and you can combine these to some degree as well.

Thanks

They are useful sometimes. Some people over use them though.