another cycling forum
=> acf 1.0 => Post of the Day => Topic started by: librarian on March 24, 2008
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Momentary seriousness approaches. I have to disagree with the majority here. I am afraid I'm an anti-smiley guerilla. I don't feel the need to turn this into some kind of faux approximation of conversation. It's not. Its words. Lots of them. Combined, sometimes gloriously, other times less so, but words they are. And they do what you ask of them.
Emoticons make for laziness. Omit them and you are forced to think about what you write. Jokes should be funny. Tales of woe, tragic. We all have books and stories that make us laugh, cry, care, feel passionate or disgusted or shocked or hopeless or inspired or any other emotion you care to name. Yet, of emoticons, there are none. It's all done with words.
Perhaps it indeed won't work. Maybe I'm old fashioned, forged in the cold, dark, early universe of Usenet, in the days when Top Posters where routinely crucified. But I think Sam's experiment is worthy. Ruin the forum? Nah. I'm here because I enjoy what I read. And it's the words. I'm not here to assimilate your emoticons. Have confidence that the words will do as you ask.