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

Perhaps a tongue-tied one for people who don't know what to post.

As you can see the current 'want list' is fairly long so TPTB have decided to close it for a while to clear the backlog. When or if it will be re-opened hasn't been decided yet but keep an eye on the announcements and this page to find out.

Besides, if you don't know what to post don't post anything. It is generally considered bad netiquette to reply to someone with just a smiley (though we all do it occasionally )

Mel

Or one word postings, or conversation-killers

You got it, these guys -> are there to enhance conversations not to be substitutes for them.

Mel

hmm, I can imagine people would still use it for other things, like spelling mistakes.

What do you mean? I tend to put (sp?) after a word if I'm not sure I've got the right spelling or I look the word up in a dictionary

Mel

No, I mean if you type something incorrectly, which is easily done.

The best thing to do is correct it if there is a danger of the incorrect version being misunderstood. Some people add the blush smiley but merely acknowledging the mistake and correcting it is more useful than putting a tongue-tied smiley - for which people might then not understand the purpose!

Right, just I've seen it used on other sites (not BBC sites) and I thought it was a good idea.

There is likely to be a lot of variation once sites go beyond the few "standard" smileys. The closest here other than blush might be flustered , doh , tongueout or drunk (depending on the cause of the problem).

is always a good one for me, especially if it's because I was in a rush and forgot to preview

Mel

Hmm OK then