where's the love?

[pescifish]

I'm not sure if this is a request, a complaint or a plea for help due to my overall gimpiness.

But... in the vast repository of smilies, I find several on-the-lips romance kissy ones and several bump'n'grind contact ones. Is it my bad eyes and lazy visual scanning that is causing me to miss a kiss-on-the-cheek like http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/remybussi.gif and plain ol' friendly hugs like http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/hug2.gif or http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/hug3.gif ?

We have such a great selection, I'm certain they are in there somewhere, but I'm just not seeing them (I blame my vision, but it's more likely my age addled forgetfulness!)

[Oh yeah! I did find the cookie in Food and Drink today :cookie: It looks like a very dull artist palette without the little thumbhole! http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/images/icons/palette.gif ]

[HelenM]

I'm not sure if this is a request, a complaint or a plea for help due to my overall gimpiness.

But... in the vast repository of smilies, I find several on-the-lips romance kissy ones and several bump'n'grind contact ones. Is it my bad eyes and lazy visual scanning that is causing me to miss a kiss-on-the-cheek like http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/remybussi.gif and plain ol' friendly hugs like http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/hug2.gif or http://www.pescifish.net/smilies/hug3.gif ?

We have such a great selection, I'm certain they are in there somewhere, but I'm just not seeing them (I blame my vision, but it's more likely my age addled forgetfulness!)

[Oh yeah! I did find the cookie in Food and Drink today :cookie: It looks like a very dull artist palette without the little thumbhole! http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/images/icons/palette.gif ]

Hi pescifish,

Positive reinforcement has these:

:hug: :highfive2 :five: :chestram:

only one of those is on your list - but at least I found one!

Personally, I would rather have less smily pages with more smilies on each; I find it hard to remember where my favorite smilies are. I get confused about whether a given smily is on:
shy and retiring or fraidycat
sporting group or cogs in the machine
running hot and cool or anger management
special occasions or party over heah

I like the smilies themselves (but also would be happy to see any of pescifish's favorites added - she seems to have a great collection too) but would like them to be a bit easier to find.

But if everyone else likes the lists as they are, it's not a big deal - I'll resign myself to being confused :chin:

Helen

[JoeP]

I agree with Helen. Too many pages with too few on each. Need more per page.

Or, and here's a good one for the programmers:
a keyword facility
it should be trivial to associate the most relevant keywords to each smilie, and then have a search page.

Break away from the rigidity of a single hierarchical left-brain classification and emerge into a bright new world of free-association right-brain creativity and productive power.

[JoeP]

Oh, and if you really want FF to be community-moderated, how about letting users add keywords for the smilies?

[livius drusus]

Oh, and if you really want FF to be community-moderated, how about letting users add keywords for the smilies?
Um, what? I'd love to, if only I knew how in the world that could be accomplished. (Or even what it means, frankly.)

Pesci, I'm currently cursed with a dial-up connection (which is why I haven't been my usual obsessive presence), but that will be sorted out by the end of the weekend. I will gladly upload your huggies then.

Helen, you're right, of course, that 24 categories is just plain excessive. As soon as my DSL returns to me, I shall consolidate. If anyone would care to suggest new meta-categories, I'd be thrilled.

[pescifish]

Positive reinforcement has these:

:hug: :highfive2 :five: :chestram:

only one of those is on your list - but at least I found one!
Aha! Thanks, Helen! I was certain I'd find a huggy somewhere in there and kept looking and looking, but just not seeing. Now that I know it's there, I'll be able to find it -- thank you!

That would be great if you could add the kiss-on-the-cheek one. Chances are more folks here would rather get their pescifish kisses in that form rather than the romantic type. :yup:

If anyone would care to suggest new meta-categories, I'd be thrilled.
I like Helen's consolidation suggestions here:shy and retiring or fraidycat
sporting group or cogs in the machine
running hot and cool or anger management
special occasions or party over heah

[JoeP]

Um, what? I'd love to, if only I knew how in the world that could be accomplished. (Or even what it means, frankly.)
My suggestion wasOr, and here's a good one for the programmers:
a keyword facility
it should be trivial to associate the most relevant keywords to each smilie, and then have a search page.

When you want a smilie but you don't know which one you don't think "I want a standard congratulations smilie" you think "clapping loudly". When you want to find a web site you don't know, you often don't go through a hierarchical directory, you go to a search engine and enter two or three keywords. Have you used the browser bookmarks tool Powermarks? It does away with folders and categories altogether, just using keywords. You don't need to remember where you placed a particular bookmark, just one of the keywords involved.

This is what I'm talking about for smilies, and I know it would take some vbulletin programming, but not black-belt stuff.

I imagine the 'more smilies' page having a keyword box, instead of a drop-down list of categories. You enter a keyword or three ("clap loud" or "hug kiss"), click submit, and the page updates with all the smilies matching those keywords. Just like a search engine.

The second idea was to get more keywords in by allowing us the users to add keywords, but this is a "version 2" kind of feature!

joe
Vague Concept Specification ends

[livius drusus]

That would be great if you could add the kiss-on-the-cheek one. Chances are more folks here would rather get their pescifish kisses in that form rather than the romantic type. :yup:

Pshaw, woman. Still, as soon as connection allows, it shall most assuredly be done.

I like Helen's consolidation suggestions here:

They're a great start. Ideally, I'd like to have all the categories on one page when you click on the drop-down, so I might have to jiggle things further. I knew 24 categories was madness, but the heady atmosphere infused my every synapse with a compulsion to organize, organize, organize.

/me sighs

I have issues.

[livius drusus]

I imagine the 'more smilies' page having a keyword box, instead of a drop-down list of categories. You enter a keyword or three ("clap loud" or "hug kiss"), click submit, and the page updates with all the smilies matching those keywords. Just like a search engine.

I'm sure Brian could make that happen, but given that he no longer takes on any new customers and only helps us out on account of a grandfather clause (my shameless worshipping flattery might be a factor), I am loathe to impose upon him for such a minor issue. There are other sources, however. I'll see what I can do. How are your php skills, just out of curiosity?

I should warn you up front that I love my categories - a lot, actually - so I'm not likely to discard them in favor of the keyword search option. It'll have to be both or you are going to have to assemble an army to breach my ramparts of assuaged anality.

The second idea was to get more keywords in by allowing us the users to add keywords, but this is a "version 2" kind of feature!

Ah. Gotcha. Version 2 it is.

[Ronin]

It'll have to be both or you are going to have to assemble an army to breach my ramparts of assuaged anality.

Damn, that's hot.

[viscousmemories]

Thanks for the suggestion, Joe. Keyword search for the smilies does make a lot of sense. I like to use this one, for example: :coolsmil and it'd be much easier if I could just type "cool" in a search box rather than have to remember the category or name.

And as a perfect case in point, I have once again forgotten the word to generate the smilie I'm referring to and I can't find it again, and I'll be damned if I'm going to scroll through all the categories on dial-up. It's a little Rasta smilie smoking a cigarette, though. If you care. I always think it's :coolsmil but it isn't. It's something close, though.

Anyway I agree that a keyword search feature is likely trivial to code, but as liv said we have fairly limited access to our programmer. However it will definitely go on the "feature request" list, and we'll add it as soon as it's feasible.

[HelenM]

Pshaw, woman. Still, as soon as connection allows, it shall most assuredly be done.



They're a great start. Ideally, I'd like to have all the categories on one page when you click on the drop-down, so I might have to jiggle things further. I knew 24 categories was madness, but the heady atmosphere infused my every synapse with a compulsion to organize, organize, organize.

Hey, I'm not against your compulsion. I just want to channel it into re-organizing the smilies into fewer pages. :yup:

* livius drusus sighs

I have issues.

Don't worry - the arcade will keep people too busy to notice. :P

Helen

[HelenM]

Thanks for the suggestion, Joe. Keyword search for the smilies does make a lot of sense. I like to use this one, for example: :coolsmil and it'd be much easier if I could just type "cool" in a search box rather than have to remember the category or name.

And as a perfect case in point, I have once again forgotten the word to generate the smilie I'm referring to and I can't find it again, and I'll be damned if I'm going to scroll through all the categories on dial-up. It's a little Rasta smilie smoking a cigarette, though. If you care. I always think it's :coolsmil but it isn't. It's something close, though.

Anyway I agree that a keyword search feature is likely trivial to code, but as liv said we have fairly limited access to our programmer. However it will definitely go on the "feature request" list, and we'll add it as soon as it's feasible.

vm, I like the keyword search idea. The particular smily you want is probably on the page 'running hot and cool'. There are lots of 'cool' smilies on that page. I realized this yesterday when I was posting to this thread and noticed that the name is not running hot and cold but running hot and cool. Duh :blush:

Some may now wonder whether misreading the smily page names is the real reason for my confusion, making my attempt to blame liv's organization of smilies erroneous. Of course the answer is no. :shades:

Helen

[JoeP]

How are your php skills, just out of curiosity?Zero, but any excuse to learn... I'll get back to you if I can locate a test server I can learn on...

I should warn you up front that I love my categories - a lot, actually - so I'm not likely to discard them in favor of the keyword search option. It'll have to be both or you are going to have to assemble an army to breach my ramparts of assuaged anality.All your categories can stay, ma'am! A keyword system and a category system can co-exist. In fact your category names will be the first keywords.

I could suggest you stick the categories up your arse but you seem to be saying that's where they already are :P

[viscousmemories]

vm, I like the keyword search idea. The particular smily you want is probably on the page 'running hot and cool'. There are lots of 'cool' smilies on that page. I realized this yesterday when I was posting to this thread and noticed that the name is not running hot and cold but running hot and cool. Duh :blush:
Ah, you're so right. :pimp: (it's got a hyphen between 'cool' and 'smil'.

Some may now wonder whether misreading the smily page names is the real reason for my confusion, making my attempt to blame liv's organization of smilies erroneous. Of course the answer is no. :shades:
But of course! :didi:

[JoeP]

OK, I know more PHP than yesterday. I can't run mysql on my web server ... but I could always install it on my home machine and mess around.

Could you show me the php source for the current smilies page?

[viscousmemories]

I can't really give you the source for the smilies page because I believe doing so would be a violation of the vBulletin license agreement. However, I can and will set up a vBulletin test server sometime next week, and give you access to it if you're still interested in working on this.

Silly question, but are you a programmer? If I could learn php it'd be my first language. I've done all the basic tutorials, etc. but it's hard to learn without a coach, especially when your main source for experience is a product like vBulletin which has little to no technical documentation...

[JoeP]

I'm a strictly amateur programmer but I've been doing amateur stuff in various languages since 6502 assembler in 1978 ... mostly desktop stuff at the moment but keen on web coding.

You're right to be concerned about the licence agreement but how does anybody customise it if the programmers can't see, mumble mumble. I assumed the category selection of smilies was something you'd done (had your programmer do) specially for this board. The test server idea looks good.

Basically I need to know are the smilies, or at least the :whatever: tags, in a database table? Or are they hardcoded somewhere in the source?

[livius drusus]

You're right to be concerned about the licence agreement but how does anybody customise it if the programmers can't see, mumble mumble.

All the vB programmers I've encountered own or have owned their own vB license. They create the hacks on their own boards and release them on vb.org or other such sites and people install them on their boards. In our case, vm installed around 30 publically released hacks himself before we went live. Brian, the creator of our custom hacks, installed them directly onto the board as well.

I assumed the category selection of smilies was something you'd done (had your programmer do) specially for this board.

It's a publically released hack with a few touches from vm to make it prettier: Smilie Category Hack (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65394).

The rest I'll leave for Tom. It's cool that you're learning PHP, though. Very cool. :yup:

[JoeP]

OK: that makes plenty sense. I will continue ferreting around at vb.org.

[livius drusus]

I've combined Special Occasions and Party Over Heah to create Holidays and Parties and folded Fraidycats into Shy and Retiring. I am at an impasse, however, as I just can't bring myself to blend Sporting with Cogs or Anger with Running. Any other suggestions for bigger category umbrellas?

[pzmyers]

dev/null?

[livius drusus]

I should have kept those perverted AOL ones just so I could teabag you when you gave me shit, pz.

[livius drusus]

Okey dokey, then. I've added :kisscheek: to Positive Reinforcement. While I was in there, I also joined Bestiary and Botanical Gardens together into Beasts and Botany. Slowly, slowly I'll chisel away at my category proliferation problem.

Unfortunately for pz, it doesn't look my yen for money smilies is abating in any way, as I have also tossed in:

:lol: (Good Times)
:sheepshag: (Ah, L'Amour {cause I don't judge})
:yawning: (Shy and Retiring)
:blahblah: and :madrant: (Anger Management)
:slapface: (Owies)
:deepsigh: (Sorrow Floats)
:01: (Bewitched, Bothered)
:witchfly: (Holidays and Parties)
and my personal favorite :groucho: (Celebrity Impersonators)

[pescifish]

I've added :kisscheek: to Positive Reinforcement.
Thank you! :lol: (Good Times)Damn, what's he drinking and where can I get some?!

[godfry n. glad]

Damn, what's he drinking and where can I get some?!

What makes you think he's "drinking"?

godfry

[pescifish]

What makes you think he's "drinking"?
My mistake.

High On Life!!! :lol:

[livius drusus]

We should totally give out awards for best use of the sign code. :)

[Chiron]

We should totally give out awards for best use of the sign code. :)I agree and nominate myself for the Prestigious Bonanza Award (abbreviated as PBA) on the grounds that someone who causes you to pass out through the gratuitous and, er, conlapsiferous* use of vb code certainly deserves such an award. And because I'm a pirate (we are exactly ONE MONTH AND ONE DAY away from International Talk Like A Pirate Day!), with new avatar, title, location, and sig to boot!

For obvious reasons, pesci gets my nomination for the Prestigious Polychromatic Award (abbreviated as PPA). And I nominate Shake for the Prestigious Damn That's Cool Award (abbreviated as WTFSWEET), as befits his recursive nesting.

And I don't do smilies. Which means that there's no love in this post! I am a scurvy dog! ;) Behold! My rapscallionery knows no bounds!

Yarr!,
X
*Conlapsiferous, adj. -- inducing or tending to induce swooning, esp. in ladies who are in the presence of pirates. [Latin conlapsis, conlapsi-, perfect participle of deponent verb conlabi, to fall in swoon. -ferous, bearing, producing, containing.]

[livius drusus]

I agree and nominate myself for the Prestigious Bonanza Award (abbreviated as PBA) on the grounds that someone who causes you to pass out through the gratuitous and, er, conlapsiferous* use of vb code certainly deserves such an award. And because I'm a pirate (we are exactly ONE MONTH AND ONE DAY away from International Talk Like A Pirate Day!), with new avatar, title, location, and sig to boot!

There's just no arguing with that logic, Cap'n.

For obvious reasons, pesci gets my nomination for the Prestigious Polychromatic Award (abbreviated as PPA). And I nominate Shake for the Prestigious Damn That's Cool Award (abbreviated as WTFSWEET), as befits his recursive nesting.

I can't think of anyone more deserving of those awards.

And I don't do smilies. Which means that there's no love in this post! I am a scurvy dog! ;) Behold! My rapscallionery knows no bounds!

Hey! ;) is a smilie. You really are a scurvy, rapscallionry dog. Like this one: :pup: Erm... Okay maybe not. Like this one! :sleepingdog: Crap. Maybe this one? :pug: Ah, fuck it. :bulldog:

[godfry n. glad]

Shiver me timbers!

Pie Rats!

Arrrrrr.....away from me pie, matey, or lose your short arm....

godfry n. glad

[JoeP]

:cool:
:cartman: :kyle: :stan: :kenny:
:bravehrt:
:mousecheese: :fishy:
'scuse me. This was necessary.

[JoeP]

And so was this. :yawn: :glare:

[pescifish]

Ahoy?! :pirate:
Who you callin' a hoy?! :hmph:


[Quoted from Time magazine's article on Las Vegas, referring to the TI's new show]