the difference between a lol and a smiley

[kim]

Off topic completely, but interested in thoughts.

I posed a reply in another (rather sombre) forum and ended it with this 'lol' smiley:

:lol:

And the reply to that was, 'The internet can be a bit funny about "tone of voice". Next time, use a smiley face, not a laughing-at-me one.'


Is it just me, or did that woman need to GET A LIFE??? And where is she to think that I don't know my way around a forum? Sheesh.

I'm so glad that this forum is NORMAL, unlike other ones out there where holier-than-thou types feel the urge to correct supposed 'n00bs' on 'netiquette'.

[menagers]

Oh dear, and I will refrain from asking the obvious question, although my curiosity is piqued. I had a friend inform me that she's "just not into emoticons" the other day. I hadn't even thought about it. I like our cheeky, yet demure ones, but I also enjoy those slightly more off-the-wall zany ones on SMWAH. Those scary ones that talk to you on Media Fire are UNCALLED FOR however.

As for tone of voice, don't get me started. I still do not speak to my father (11 months, two birthdays and a Christmas and counting - Woohoo) because I did not like the tone of his "Fuck Off" in an email.

[13 schoolyards]

I steer well clear of the whole thing... that said, I do write stuff for a living, and in that world if someone can't tell when you're being funny (even if it's not actually very funny) without a "lol" at the end you're in a lot of trouble.

Email is a total nightmare as far is tone is concerned. Anything that's not a simple request or statement of fact, I go for the phone (where possible) every time. I have a friend who lost a (very good) job largely because he said things in emails that would have seemed perfectly reasonable if only he'd kept them to face-to-face conversations. It literally takes years to learn how to write properly as far as nuances go, but people jump on the internet and think "fuck you - lol" makes perfect sense.

[wogsncash]

A bizzare fact I picked up while studying psych, only 7% of a message is conveyed purely by the words. The other 93% body language, facial expression and tone of voice. So I may say Fuck you and really mean well done or may say fuck you and mean no seriously go fuck yourself. Shades of grey people, shades of grey.:mrgreen:

[kim]

I also write for a living (ironically I'm a technology journalist - ha!) but I don't tend to stick LOLs in published articles. Besides, I felt it was justified anyway - it was on the Lulu self-publishing forum and she'd got me mixed up with someone else who'd written some gory poetry about murder when I'd just written a teen novel. I pointed this out and ended it with a laughing face. Wasn't laughing AT her, just at the incident. It really was just meant to be a smile, not a cackle!

There is an expert helpdesk at the magazine I worked for, and a reader wrote a query in all caps, so the helpdesk person advised her not to use caps in future as it was seen as shouting. The poor old woman got so offended she actually called the company up and put in a formal complaint, and my colleague was put aside and given a talking to. Oops!

So what does a green face mean, then....

[wogsncash]

!

So what does a green face mean, then....

The new digital ages makes some of us that are a bit older feel nauseous?

[kim]

"Well I'm feeling down and dejected
I'm on heavy medication
I'm singing in this accent with no real justification
But it ain't my baby leaving me that's left me in the pits
It's trivial insignificant things that are giving me the shits"

(from Steve's late show site :))

[menagers]

Well, if that's the case, she's a nuff-nuff. Who could confuse you with someone who writes, what was it?, "gory murder poetry" (I had no idea that was a genre!)? And what psycho writes an entire letter in capitals? One may as well just get out the newspaper, cut out the letters and paste them together, along with their demand for a jar of eyeballs.

Whenever people bother me, when they shout and raise their voices. I don't let it get me down, I just make some stupid noises. I go... (insert funny sounds of your choice, although don't replace "Mrs. Ghandi yuk yuk", that's gold) (from niche forums all over the www)