But hey I’m from America and relatively close to New York, and I always hear “I’m dying here” in a New York accent, so that probably influences the tone I read into it.
1 Like
I don’t think that has anything to do with what I was saying. I was discussing the idiosyncratic way that my brain works as making emoji and emoticons nearly useless to me; I wasn’t generalizing about their usefulness to other people. And I only brought up my professional skills in English to suggest that your interpretation of my difficulties reflected linguistic deficits was probably not plausible; I was not suggesting that the phrase couldn’t mean what you said, but only that I hadn’t encountered it.
So let me say it again: emoji do not, for me, overcome ambiguous usage of English, because to me emoji are themselves ambiguous to the point of incomprehensibility, to the point where I simply read past them, and perhaps don’t even consciously see them. Is that first person enough to be unambiguous?
3 Likes
When I wrote “a problem with English” I did not mean a problem with any individual’s grasp of English. I meant that written English can be very ambiguous. I hope you will take a moment to re-read the exchange in this new light. I never made such an interpretation and never intended to slight you.
2 Likes
I accept that it can, and further assert that emoji are worse in that way.
Ah, but the combination of the two is not “worse”. At least for most^ people and most^ casual use-cases.
^ unsupported claims, based on nothing more than anecdotal experience.
PS: and I don’t even like emojis! I don’t use them!
1 Like
All of this bloodshed could have been avoided if Chewy77 had just written “dinos are cool” and not amplified with a picture of a glam rocker.
2 Likes
I’m dying here 
6 Likes
The only thing I want to add to this conversation, is to badly summarize an article I read of a few french journalist who tried to get a “raclette” (french dish made with cheese) emoji accepted. And that’s how I heard how and when emoji get made and accepted. There is actually a comitee ! With permanent members of the board who get together and study application for new emoji to determinate if they are a valuable addition to the roster of already available emoji.
Going back to the raclette example, it was actually refused, because it was too narrow, culturally speaking (in the sense it would only mean something to french or french-adjacent people) and that there is already a fondue emoji, and it’s close enough for the board.
It was a fascinating read; they actually have to submit a 40/50 page essay, with pictures in different resolution and the how and why was this emoji important and was needed to be added.
EDIT: Oh! And I forgot the best part! Look at the members of the permanent board :
That read arrow point to the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman! How weird is that they are a member!
2 Likes
It’s a sitewide setting; others are available, but I don’t regard the choice as particularly significant.
If you had started to learn emoji-as-they-are-used at age two when you had the relevant neuroplasticity, you’d probably feel the same way. (But that would be as they’re used in a particular group; it is not only possible but I think inevitable that two disconnected social groups may attach different significance to the same character.)
2 Likes
I use smileys a lot, and occasionally thumbs-up.
They’re frequently used at the end of a line to indicate the writer’s emotion specifically to aid in understanding the tone of the whole statement (usually showing that it should be read as less harsh or more jokingly than it could be).
The only one I’ve seen large groups of people have trouble with is the phrase “Slow clap” or “Golf clap” and that’s due to cultural differences: in the UK that means a sarcastic clap because you messed up, in the US it’s a slow respectful clap because you agree (I think?). Anyway, I’ve certainly seen UK mean it as a negative and US as positive!
3 Likes
It was easier on USENET. “If you’re wondering whether someone is being sarcastic, look for the indicator - a “.uk” at the end of their address.”
8 Likes
A massed slow hand clap in the UK is a signal to the venue that means “Get this idiot off the stage, or we’re out of here”. Polite people will have already started leaving. The performer has lost the audience irretrievably.
I’m not as old as Bill, but my sight is considerably worse. Most of the user icons people are using are too complex for me to understand without careful study. How do I set my user title to “emojis will be ignored or misunderstood”?
2 Likes
You ask a mod. [clicky clicky] (It’s in the user admin interface, but I don’t have a mod-level account so I can’t describe it step-by-step.)
1 Like
I think GURPS needs a new skill or advantage for use in Infinite Worlds campaigns, for in case the characters end up in a parallel universe where Bill Stoddard learned emoji at the age of two.
.au and .nz were also pretty clear warning signs for bone-dry irony. But nowadays nearly everyone is @gmail.com.
1 Like
I love this thread, but it’s a bit long
TL;DR:
[and some padding to make it to 20 characters]
4 Likes
What do you know?
4 Likes
I didn’t take it that you were and was not personally insulted. Your apology is accepted, but it was never necessary.
Rather, I was frustrated by your seeming not to understand what I was trying to say, and pedantically insisting on explaining it at greater length.
That may be the case; I have no way of knowing whether my cognitive peculiarities are innate or the result of experience so early that I don’t remember it. But I do have to say that the “Bill Stoddard” who had that early experience would likely have turned out so different that I can’t really feel him to be “me,” not even a possible “me.” For one thing he would have had to have been born at least 30 years later and grown up in a different generation.
Considering how far we are from the initial conversation, is it worth those who want to discuss the different points diverting into separate threads? I Worry this will balloon into an all consuming thread.
1 Like