Post your short questions here. No need to start a thread everytime.

I think you two are getting old. I say yes to emoticons

Paraphrasing an old proverb:It’s better to keep your emoticons private and let people think you’re an idiot than to make them public and remove all doubt.”HM

And I say yes to sarcasm, irony, pastiche, proverbs, literary allusions and many more of those beautiful constructs you can make with words alone. If I want pictures, I'll read a comic, thank you very much. O dear, you're a rookie, aren't you?Metaphors be with you.

what about poe's law? we all saw how easily jon was fooled when gasby and AIG were messing around in herepton's thread. they didn't use emoticons.I say keep/use the emoticons. we are emotive creatures, and online writing does not lend itself to the vast amount of facial expressions we use in daily speech. emoticons help remedy that problem.

If you're going to trumpet the virtues of literacy, turning a proverb on its head might not be the best way to do it. You, of all people, desparately need emoticons.

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Remember that we deal with a lot of very literal-minded people around here.
If not for them, the place need not exist.Some of them wouldn't recognize sarcasm, etc. if it sat down beside them in church.
The emoticons are for them.And for those of us who tend to be a tad forceful, the emoticons signal to our friends that our words are meant to bite their heads off only figuratively.

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They're welcome to them. If my sarcasm amounts to pearls before swine, then they have a problem, not I. I just enjoy writing it.

emoticons : literature :: saltpeter : sexMHOIAW”HM

You mean, they have no effect whatsoever?

Not if your pre-condition already amounts to the same effect.MHOIAW”HM

I'm not sure I take your meaning. You wouldn't be hitting below the belt, would you?

Yeah, it was a groin shot. Sorry, but you hung 'em out there. Take a knee.”HM

When they're this big, they do dangle.

If this thread serves no other useful purpose it is very entertaining.

In the time that I've been here, I haven't seen any thread dedicated to quote mining members here just for fun. Would I be breaking or pushing any forum guideline by starting one?

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!