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All the emoticons fit to print

July 31, 2007 on 11:50 am | In Features, News | 19 Comments

Emoticons made a splash in The New York Times last weekend. A cover story of the Sunday Styles section entitled
“(-: Just Between You and Me ;-) ” takes a look at the impact emoticons have had on our culture of communication.

    These Starburst-sweet hieroglyphs, arguably as dignified as dotting one’s I’s with kitten faces, have conquered new landscape in the lives of adults, as more of our daily communication shifts from the spoken word to text. Applied appropriately, users say, emoticons can no longer be dismissed as juvenile, because they offer a degree of insurance for a variety of adult social interactions, and help avoid serious miscommunications.

The writer, Alex Williams, doesn’t seem to have the same silly enthusiasm that some of us do for emoticons  , but his story is an interesting take on how these small bits of e-culture have even moved off the computer and into our spoken language:

    Even grown men on Wall Street, for example, will weave the term “QQ” (referring to an emoticon that symbolizes two eyes crying) into conversation as a sarcastic way of saying “boo hoo.

The article includes some references to our recent Emoticon survey where 40,000 users told us how, when and why they use Yahoo! Messenger’s emoticons. Also included in the article is a picture of emoticon creator, Scott Fahlman, and a handy cheat sheet for some beginner, intermediate and advanced emoticons.

How’s your emoticon IQ? Test yourself with these advanced ones (answers here):

5:-)
*\0/*
0;^)
//0-0\\

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

19 Comments »

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  1. where is the 1972 dancing elvis emoticon I asked for sahra ?

    Comment by cldelphi — July 31, 2007 #

  2. i think the smily face icon iz cool

    Comment by elaina — August 1, 2007 #

  3. Terry, this is the wrong place to be complaining about booting.

    On topic: Any news on what emoticons will make it in any future versions of Yahoo! Messenger, or is it a secret?

    Comment by Venom — August 2, 2007 #

  4. Hm,…those emoticons are pretty ok, I’ve seen the beginner and intermediate ones in conversations but I think the advanced ones are kind of pathetic…
    i see >_> ^_^ O_O O_o ._. =D =O XD most often in conversations. You can tell someone older than 21 wrote that article…

    Comment by Joseph — August 2, 2007 #

  5. This may be an area that isn’t covered here, but I thought “what the heck – I’ll give it a shot”. I understand that the BIX group is a Yahoo company. I have a major complaint about the 2007 Emoticontest (sponsored by Emoticon25th) and am trying to find some where that I might get some serious consideration of my complaint. The way the contest has been handled is totally screwed up. There were major problems with the voting from the beginning. There were many issues with the entries which were being included for voting. Some entries were by BIX staffers(I didn’t realize this until I saw comments by other entrants in the contest and began looking at what they were talking about), many entries were copyrighted, some were pornographic, some improper of children with booze or cigarettes or both. First the contest implies that there is a prize then when we question it in the 2nd round (which is being held because of major screw up in the 1st round) we are informed that THERE IS NO PRIZE to be awarded. The negative issues with this contest go on and on. I know I am just one of many who feel this way because of comments I have read on the contest page. It’s unfortunate because I was excited about the contest as were many, many other people who participated based on the comments I have read. If you can follow up on this and do anything to rectify the situation it would be appreciated by many. This was the first contest I have ever entered online — and based on my experience with it – will probably be the last. I imagine this will be the result for many besides myself.

    Comment by Robin — August 2, 2007 #

  6. Hi Sarah, the smily icon represented me too, even my teeth has failed down….ehee..ehee

    Comment by Syam Jr — August 2, 2007 #

  7. Hi Robin – Thank you for your comments about the contest. I’m sorry it was not a better experience all around. It’s our first time using the Bix platform for a contest like this so we appreciate your feedback. I will be sure to share it with the team.

    And to Venom – there’s a final voting phase to the contest going on right now (I’ll post on that tomorrow) so it’s up to the users on which ones make the final cut.

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — August 2, 2007 #

  8. RE: Emoticon Contest
    Good morning, I am writting in regards to the current emoticon contest being ran by BIX, a YAHOO Company, as stated in the page banner. Several issues have arrised as I am sure you are aware.
    1. Entries of content that has been on the web for years. Rules state that entrants must own the right and entries be original. Allowing these to be enteres is skewing the voteing as they will eventually be thrown out (according to communication from Bix team)

    2. Inapropriate content such as kids with alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Even if these are products of a graphic enhancement software they are still inappropriate by the majority of comments I have read. One should also consider the possible legal ramifications down the road when these children mature. Daily, the court recognize childrens rights and who is to say that this type picture being posted on the internet can’t / won’t have some adverse affect on these kids later in life?…or at least be claimed to have had. Do parents have the right to post what could be embarrassing picture’s of their kids on the internet that could possibly create issues if that child were to run for or become a political figure later in life?….just a thought

    3. BIX employees entering the contest. There are 3 I believe that have made it into the second round. Most contest prohibit employees and immediate family from entering. How much confidence do you think your user’s and other entrants will have in the results if an employee wins. After all one of them is an engineer and I am sure finding a way to “stuff the ballot” would be no big trick and extremely hard to trace.

    4. The first round of the contest was filled with internet pictures, dogs, cats, paintings, etc. most of which I am confident the entrants did not own the rights to. This most certainly had an adverse effect on the voting.

    The issues above certainly have skewed the voting and caused people to vote for non-qualifying entries possibly against qualifying entries. Many good entries that followed the spirit of the contest were disqualified early on I’m sure.

    4. When this contest started there was the note:
    prize awarded with a red circle with a $ sign. This has only been associated with contest that had / have a monetary award and not with any of the “just for fun” contest. This certainly led people to believe that there was a prize for the top ten winners or at least the # 1. I saw many comments inquiring about what is the prize. I contacted BIX questioning the prize and this is what I recieved:

    There is no monetary prize for that contest. They will use the winner’s entry to make a new emoticon. The rules state they reserve the right to use as many or as little as they’d like. I hope this is helpful.

    Thanks,
    Emily
    This came from bixhelp@yahoo-inc.com

    I have a printed page of the web page if you need to see that it shows and indicates a prize will be awarded. Can you explain why this was indicated? Irregardless of if it was a mistake or not the error was made by a YAHOO / BIX employee. Every day corporations are held responsible for mistakes their employees make. I would hope you will do something about this for this contest and be sure it doesnt happen again. After all, this whole contest kinda gives the appearance of being disorganized and having the rules made up as it progresses or changed to suit BIX.

    Having worked in both the corporate environment and as a businness owner I understand and realize that issues arise (especially with new ventures or promotions) but also believe that things such as are being allowed to happen with this contest can hurt YAHOO corporation’s image and public perception which ultimately can affect the “bottom line” financialy due to the lack of confidence and distrust that is being created by these issues.

    I have never had any issues with YAHOO mail, messenger, browser, etc. in the past and believed them to be reputable and trust worhthy. I hope that someone will get involved in this contest imeadiately…take control of, and correct the problems with the non-qualifying & inappropriate entries, and decide to award some sort of “noteworthy prize” as was indicated would be to maintain not only my trust and confidence in YAHOO but everyone who has posted the many many comments about these same issues.

    Good luck in future contest and I hope everyone has a great rest of 2007.

    Jeff

    Comment by Jeff — August 3, 2007 #

  9. Hi Jeff,

    Thanks to you and Robin above you for your comments on the contest. As I said in my reply to Robin, I’m sorry it was not a better experience all around. It’s our first time using the Bix platform for a contest like this so we appreciate your feedback. I will be sure to share it with the team.

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — August 3, 2007 #

  10. ummmmmm……..WEIRD

    Comment by taylor — June 17, 2011 #

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