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

I'm sorry, I was not trying to be mean. I was expressing an opinion.

a really really important concept to grasp i think
is that addressed by art vs design

ie... art, per se, as in michaelangelo's pieta or picasso's guernica, is soley the purvue of the artist... no one needs or should be consulted in the creating of such art....

design, on the other hand, in the way i am using it here, is that which is used for public communication or use... the design of a building or a poster or the design of an emoticon to be used as an element of language in a diverse community of human beings...

Hiya Fluffy,

The artists that make the smilies run them by the other artists for critique and tweaks before when they're decided good enough they're handed over to a senior volunteer to give the final go ahead before they are then put live.

It would not be practical to run absolutely everything past absolutely everyone before something was done.

I'm sorry you don't think that the looks like the sort you see on the shelves in supermarkets, but do feel free to provide one that you believe looks more like a Granny Smith.

and well you should voice your opinion nick
and you shouldnt have to apologise
it was voiced well i think
in a civilized and well modulated voice

there is going to be critique of art or design
but there will be more if the design is meant to be used by the critiquers as language tools

pastey, i hardly think that running an emoticon by all of us would be "impractical....absolutely everything past absolutely everyone before something was done"

you make it sound bigger than it is

just one thread with the name of the emoticon
under the artists' page
that any of us can put our two cents worth in on

and i don't know how to make emoticons
but that doesnt mean i dont have an opinion or a right to one
or does it?
you make it sound like the artists are so hard put and we should just be darn glad they make anything at all that we like....

the early emoticons are wonderful
simple elegant subtle and extremely artitistic

fewer of the more recent ones are very good
they are scratchy, incomplete, hard to see, misshapen, and/or obscure
here are two i especially cannot relate to looks like hostiely passing gas doesnt look like cheese
its no big deal... i am just saying that people who are volunteering to make things for the community
should be humble and respectful enuf to realise that just cuz they are volunteering doesnt make them god

aaaaand if people cannot critique something without getting put down
then its all moot then

this site
stickiness
attractiveness

allure

raison d'etre

mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot

I was commenting on how little the looks like any that I have seen from blossom to picking in Canada. And did politely ask if the emoticon rendition is common to the UK/Euro areas. Since it has passed critique and approvals of folks who know things, I won't query it again. Once more, my apology.

PS: I do quite like some of the other new ones, ... that is really something lovely indeed.

he he he

also, pastey... granny smiths are green...
red delicious and some others are red
do you have red apples in the uk?
or europe?

and also, if someone refers to a 'root cellar'
chances are they are not putting supermarket produce in it
but rather
are stocking it at harvest time
with pickings from their apple trees
and produce from their and their friends gardens

if you guys are working so hard that you cannot see our humanity out here
then you need to take some breaks
or delegate
or both

and if you do want to delegate
or share the load
then please
please
dont just say something like if you dont like it make something better...

please
rather than pointing us to some weird forum off site (in noesis)
that we have to get some sort of special permission to be a part of

please
why cant you just direct us to a little guide entry here
that tells us how to make emoticons smilies
step by step
so we can learn and then do it

and translate that for any other helpy thing
rather than emoticons smilies....
you can put in other words concerning other chores that need to be done

its just all so needlessly complicated and obscure and seemingly secretive
geeze

The looks like an English Russet one, I don't know if they grown in Canada. They're one of my favourites and the colour is just right.

Shouldn't it be ?

Fluffy, I tried to answer your question. If you choose to take it another way that is entirely up to you. But before critiquing others, please bear in mind the work that has gone in to what they have done. It's easy enough to find faults, but much harder to do better ourselves. I personally think the new smilies are very good.

And letting everyone see them first would ruin the surprise each day really wouldn't it?

Fluffy, the artists are volunteers. As in doing it in their spare time.

Also saying looks like something you'd find rotting at the bottom of a barrel in spring is hardly constructive. If it were my design I'd be quite insulted by that.

The could probably do with a redesign to bring it in line with the other smileys. looks like cheese to me... a continental one, with holes in.

"that we have to get some sort of special permission to be a part of"

No more special than here, surely?

Also what Pastey said.

I have been really enjoying the surprise element of the advent calander, call me childish if you like.

It was just a nice, fun thing to do and I saw it as a and a lovely one at that. I think all the smilies are great

thank you artists

What Peanut said.

Back to ing, now.

okay dreadful and pastey, i have given my opinion
if it looks insulting i am sorry
but when i saw someone just voice their opinion
and someone leaps in and calls them mean...
well, i guess all of my problems with this site just came to the fore

it seems most of the oldies but goodies play by their own rules
most of the time that is okay
but sometimes it is not
when people are attacked for doing stuff that the oldies but goodies do

ie its overlooked if 'you are my buddy'

so... it really is no big deal to me
i wasnt going to use the apple smiley
because it doesnt say apple to me

and others will have the same response
not just all of you regulars
but the 'thousands and millions' who are purportedly coming to the site

you can rewrite what i have said
and characterize it as not appropriate or mean or insulting
or unconsiderate

i said a bunch of important and relevant things
about volunteers' work and the rest of the community

what it boils down to is this

if the volunteers get to decide everything about this site
and the users have no say
then it wont be the original hootoo

"it seems most of the oldies but goodies play by their own rules

[...]

ie its overlooked if 'you are my buddy'"

You could not be more wrong in this.

"if the volunteers get to decide everything about this site
and the users have no say
then it wont be the original hootoo"

of your three replies to things i have said
only one is answerable
being that it says anything at all

i am not wrong about there being an elitist and buddy system here
i experienced it in my dealings with some of you
where it was okay for you to totally destroy threads of mine
to the point they were closed
and my protests, yikes, were not upheld

i am not wrong in seeing certain oldies but goodies getting away with virtual murder
if not just plain old abuse
two of the worst are still active here
and at least one of those still periodically darts in and jabs at me
when i least expect it

i am not wrong in that i have seen people be nice to some folks
and mean to others
depending on what they interpret their experience with that person is
or who they think that person is a "sockpuppet" of
i myself was considered a sockpuppet of god knows who when i first came on here
stupid stupid stupid