h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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These need to be redone with antialiasing (smoothing out the stair-step pixels). The designs are fine but they just need that final step. They look like they came from the 8-bit realm, like they were meant for the old Nintendo NES.

They just don't fit with the others.

See? vs.

Even the oldest smiley looks 'newer' than those three. looks like a yellow stop sign with ears.

I've mentioned this before but no one seems to listen and now that a new set of smileys have been released it makes me wonder if anyone cares.

I think might merit a good going over as well. Any others?

Oi!

You leave my Matt alone. It's not his fault he's a little crinkled around the edges - it adds character!

We were going to antialias those, but decided to concentrate on the new ones with the deadline looming.

Yes, that was a test version of King Bomba's sigh smiley, before antialiasing, which somehow got uploaded as the finished one.

and all that.

I'm happy about all the new smilies, great job to all involved!

And though I first thought that the antialiased onese looked a little "sharp" at the edges, I've now gotten used to them, and feel that they are allowed to be as individual as the rest of us!

Ya know... smileys do not have feelings... they REALLY don't.

So does that mean you're volunteering to fix them?

Smiley creators have lots of feelings. Or so I've heard...

No, I'm not volunteering. That is not the type of work I do. Having these smileys "fixed" by someone with no experience would not be advisable.

I see no reason why any smiley creators should be upset over my pointing out what is basically a very small oversight.

I don't see why this seems to inspire so much defensiveness.

I'm beginning to suspect though that the h2g2 community artists are getting little support from auntie beeb. The mention of a deadline that precluded fixing not only the old smileys but apparently even at least one of the new ones would seem to support my suspicion. Are we being given such small windows of opportunity that things cannot be done correctly? Is it that you're getting so little support from TPTB that any comment from the community appears as an assault?

I truly intended constructive criticism. I distinctly said that I liked the designs. The only problem was that the antialiasing was neglected as the designs were shrunk to smiley proportions.

You know, I often hear the phrase, "there's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over."

I'm getting the impression that h2g2 artists are being given neither.

That's sad.

I think you got it. Not much support, but still deadlines. All in their own free time, not being paid by more than our thanks.

Which is why complaints at their efforts might hurt...

*decides to stop speaking for others*

*at least for now*

You're neglecting a few issues...

First, whoever designed those smileys - and and so on - might simply prefer the "8-bit" aesthetic, even if you don't.

Second, it has its advantages - for one thing, lack of antialiasing means that the same smiley can be used on any colour background. The files are also smaller - is only 109 bytes vs 's 265. That's because fewer colours are used, and the fewer colours a gif has, the smaller the file.

Third, the statement: >>No, I'm not volunteering. That is not the type of work I do. Having these smileys "fixed" by someone with no experience would not be advisable.<<

None of us Community Artists are web designers. It's not "the type of work we do", just something we do on the side. Just learning through experimenting. So if people without professional experience shouldn't do them, that means no more smileys.

You could keep the smiley as is, just change the code to < wrath of god >

Yep... there's that defensiveness again.

I've just read through today's announcement and reading between the lines I think I've confirmed my suspicions.

Malabarista, seriously, thanks for the work you've been doing.

Again, this is not an attack.

As far as the smileys in question, I have had this discussion before and as I remember it the artist that created them just did not know how to antialias when she created them. Others in the discussion were very helpful in explaining how to do it but obviously, once the work had been submitted and the deadlines had passed there seemed to be no way to go back and fix them.

It seems that h2g2 is the neglected stepchild of the BBC. I truly appreciate every volunteer that works for our community. This is obviously just a symptom of what happens when your not supported by your parent organization.

count zero, your one of those people that moan about something you know nothing about. For god sake, they are smileys, they have a purpose of telling someone how your feeling, whether or not it has antialiasing or not dont matter, they still get that emotion across, thus doing there job. SO maybe in future yer, put deeper thought into an argument before expressing it, other like now you end up looking like a total NOOOB!

Andy

Do you have something to add, or are you just trolling?

On hootoo we love our smileys. And take some pride in that they are a bit different, and combine good looks with being community generated.
There doesn't have to a compromise between the two.

Count Zero isn't a "noob" and nor am I. And made a perfectly valid expression of his views.

Thanks, Stealth.

For the record, though. This thread has given me a greater appreciation for our volunteers.

i didnt say noob, i said nooob, extre o, big differance

QQMoar.