A little rant about Emojis and their kin

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

To find the meaning of an emoji hover the mouse over it

[JAParticipant @ja]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/07/2019 15:21:22:

In my youth the closest thing we had to an emoji experience was pressing Button 'A' or Button 'B' in a public telephone box. I'm just a tiny bit jealous…

Dave

Dave

Didn't you try tap dialling? That was always exciting, well slightly. You never knew who you might speak to.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 19:19:20:

To find the meaning of an emoji hover the mouse over it

.

That's useful here on the forum, Nick …

but those smileys are only a very small sub-set of emoji.

https://emojipedia.org

MichaelG.

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/07/2019 19:56:25

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 18/07/2019 14:18:33:

Posted by Farmboy on 18/07/2019 10:12:31:

Anyone know what they're for ?

.

I suspect that they are 'for' the purpose of making money for someone … but I'm not aware of the mechanism.

MichaelG.

In 2007 a survey demonstrated that the 'pile of poo emoji' was the most useful one:

💩

The curious reason for this is that in Japan the word for a pile of poo is a pun on good luck. To the point where you can wish someone good luck by giving them a golden poo ornament.

However, it's now languishing some way down the real time emoji use list.

This isn't a joke, just a reminder that something we find bewildering may have a completly different significance in another culture.

Neil

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 18/07/2019 19:55:53:

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 19:19:20:

To find the meaning of an emoji hover the mouse over it

.

That's useful here on the forum, Nick …

but those smileys are only a very small sub-set of emoji.

**LINK**

MichaelG.

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/07/2019 19:56:25

Fair comment I only checked on here where it works in posts as well as the emoji pick list.

They do talk in a screen reader in other contexts, but while I often have it enabled it is not 100%, so it is a fair cop. (tried to find emoji of a policeman to increase the irony, but it would not paste in. )

 

 

 

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 21:01:01

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Neil – I appreciate the golden poo has a different significance in other cultures, but seeing your picture I just want to give one to my boss – saying 'Its good luck honest!!'

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 21:00:32:

(tried to find emoji of a policeman to increase the irony, but it would not paste in. )

.

Taken as read, Nick

MichaelG.

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Although not an enthusiast for emojis, I looked in vain for an emoji to express "sorry to hear you are leaving us, you will be much missed, hope to see you return shortly" to enter in the TTFN thread.
DaveD

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Meunier on 19/07/2019 19:32:34:

Although not an enthusiast for emojis, I looked in vain for an emoji to express "sorry to hear you are leaving us, you will be much missed, hope to see you return shortly" to enter in the TTFN thread.
DaveD

.

I tried putting your expression into this, Dave: **LINK**

https://emojitranslate.com/

The pathetic result sums-up the usefulness of emojis I think.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. … If you can't face the prospect of visiting the site; here is its result:

🙇 to 👂️ ➡️👤 are 🚪⬆️ 👥⬅️, ➡️👤 will be much missed, 🔮 to 👀 ➡️👤 ↪️ shortly

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/07/2019 20:12:03

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

^^^Thank you Michael, indeed, point proved. insert smiley here !
However, once again I find myself behind the curve having just read AndrewJohnston's post about his 'sabbatical'
Very good news.
DaveD

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

What i wanna know is why as a model engineering website this one doesn’t have emojis that are more in line with what is generally discussed on the forum like a traction engine etc etc . One forum i used to frequent has animated emoji thingies and aren’t they annoying ! Trying to read a post while some damned little characters runs around is most distracting!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by JA on 18/07/2019 19:20:57:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/07/2019 15:21:22:

In my youth the closest thing we had to an emoji experience was pressing Button 'A' or Button 'B' in a public telephone box. I'm just a tiny bit jealous…

Dave

Dave

Didn't you try tap dialling? That was always exciting, well slightly. You never knew who you might speak to.

I tried tapping but rarely got anywhere, perhaps I should have practised more? (On second thoughts I had plenty of other outlets for my misspent youth!)

Relying on faulty memory, other tricks:

• There was a four digit number that rang you back, excellent for practical jokes.
• Another 4-digit number measured the accuracy of dial pulses. It always answered 'Dolty filing pulzes', a mystery until I eventually realised it was reporting 'Faulty Dialling Pulses'.
• There was a system of two digit prefix codes that interconnected adjacent exchanges at local rates. A black-market table made it possible to dial-long distance at local rates by building chains of local calls across the country. Not very practical!
• It was possible to tie up all the lines available between two adjacent exchanges by alternating their corresponding codes until you got an Unavailable tone. (ie if Bath to Bristol was 91, and Bristol to Bath was 92, then dialling 9192919291929192 would eat 8 connections.)

All this had to be done from a call-box. Home telephones were far too important to be played with and touching it would bring an instant rebuke.

Similar fun can be had with emojis. Originally intended as a simple way of clarifying ambiguous text, they've bloated and become misused, complicated, confusing, and annoying. (Animated emoji are pure evil.)

All complex systems have loopholes and cracks that are fun to explore. Me playing with the phone system circa 1965, ha ha, is not dissimilar from the current generation peppering the internet with daft emojis, also ha, ha. It's only the grown-ups who get upset, but don't worry disapproving is our job!

Dave

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