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

...but seriously, how do I go about getting myself a Sikh Smiley??

Love and hugs and thanks and buckets of happy.
Rt. Rev. Lesley Sahib-Gentle

You have to wait. It's that simple.

Whoami?

Mmmmmm...

Oh, and the decision of whether this goes on the list has yet to be made. Hopefully, there'll be further discussion. I'd like to start it off with this friendly question:

Do we feel that religious smileys might be prone to abusive use?

Whoami?

I'm against religious smilies, sorry but there you go.
One of the beauties of the internet as a communication medium in this manner is that creed and cast are unknown, unless you make them so. People can come on here and just be themselves without any prejudices aimed at them.
I think the introduction of religious smilies would start to segregate the community. Which is not why people come here.
Personally I'm a Pagan and hold no bias to any religion but like to know about them all. Some people however have misconceptions about Paganism, and they might prejudge me by their own ignorance. The world is like that without giving a foothold.
Can't we just keep religion out of here? It causes enough trouble as it is elsewhere.

I have put it on the list, but we don't have any smileys representing any other ethnic or religious group, so it's unlikey that we'll give it a very high priority.

I'm still against cast or creed smilies.

It's interesting at this point to note that even religious discussion is a no-no on some online communities - eg. http://www.everything2.com/ - and I got silenced for simply answering a question on Holy Communion. That wasn't even by a moderator. Perversely, they call their most experienced users 'Gods' - and they're just that as far as free speech is concerned...

Whoami?

Oh, and personally I am with Pastey - as no-one has yet answered my question to my satisfaction...

Whoami?

I think it is wrong to not have religiouos smileys just because they could be used for bad purposes. The people on here are by-and-large good people and it is unfair to restrict them in this way.

I am wholeheartedly against this idea of a negative freedom.

I personally can't see how not having any cast or creed smilies is restricting.
It's not discriminating because I don't think there should be /any/ of them.

I also can't actually see the use of them. Smilies are used to enhance conversation, initially they were used as emoticons, a way of discerning facial expressions from somebody whose face you couldn't see. I can't see how a cast/creed smilie would in anyway fill that role.

If you can explain to me why you feel there should be one, and in what way it would be used, then please do as I'm interested to know.

It is purely symbolic. Why should you enjoy your freedom from religion whilst others are not allowed their freedom to use religious symbols freely.

I think the point has gone slightly astray throughout this discussion. What I ultimately requested was a Sikh Smiley. I don't think that it's inclusion is any different from having a tennis-playing smiley, an artist smiley, a thief smiley, a black man smiley or a black woman smiley.

When there are angel and devil smileys already up and you start to question whether religious smileys should be added it is a little late. All I'm asking for is a piece of headwear! It's hardly going to cause widescale problems, or is it the worry that it would open up a barrage of similar requests for Orthodox Jewish Smileys and Burqa-Wearing Smileys too!

There is no worry, I merely don't see the point.

Angels, Devils, Witches and a whole host of other icons from many religions have, over the course of time lost their religious relevance. And it could be argued that they actually had any relevance to start with. An easy example is the Halloween celebrations in the United States, a far cry from their origin.

Sikh smiley can be (ab)used for 1001 nights.

Ali Baba and 40 bandits.

do we want to be political correct or do we want be able to serious / fun from time to time?

we can be all 3

A good example of a use pheloxi, thank you.

But one occurance, in my mind, hardly justifies an addition.

I'm leaving all the discussion about religious and other such use aside as , when it comes down to it, is irrelevant to myself.

You have a very pessimistic view about the nature of human beings.

Do you think that human beings in the state of nature are evil? Is life naturally nasty brutish and short?

Is this turning into a psychiatry session?

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here is you couch and please pay €100 in advance

Rev,

I don't know whether I agree with Hobbes (it was Hobbes who said it, right?) that life is nasty, brutish and short, but when I was reading Hobbes in college, I lived next door to a second-year student who was...


GTB

As for religious smileys, I would prefer religious *symbols* to smileys representing *members* of the various religions. Do Sikhs have something corresponding to a Chritian , a Jewish , a taoist , etc?

Say, is on the list? If not, I request it! I'd use that one, just so I could hurl it, like an asian grenade, into conversations that are getting a bit yang-heavy - like those feng-shui terrorists who break into people's houses and arrange all the furniture, maybe opening a window or two to let the energy flow...

GTB