Smileytext Issues

[livius drusus]

(2) Liv, we have a fundamental question here. Loading arbitrary smilietexts and filenames is not really a problem. The need underlying what Legs was asking for is to have smilies corresponding to basic concepts.

I don't think so, actually.

Do you remember the smilies I was asking for that led to "Joe's ever-multiplying smilie requests"? Not "a girl beating up a much bigger guy" (still waiting for that, I think) but basics like "money", "fear", "pride" (not those ones exactly but I'm too lazy to go and read them).

I do indeed remember; I just don't see how it relates here. I really don't think we have all that many basic concepts left uncovered.

I put it to you, ma'am, that Legs wasn't asking for a change to the smilietext for one of the existing slapper smilies, but a new smilie conveying the most most basic essence of "slap" - that by-the-by could have the smilietext :slap:.

I think she simply wanted to be able to type :hug: and :slap: and have a smiley come up. I'm not sure what you mean by most basic essence. Do none of our current slap or hug keyworded guys express the basic essences of slap and hug? :confused:

[Ymir's blood]

Since it wasn't split off the original thread: :huggle:

Generally, I always use the keyword search, since it is so handy. That usually means I type the actual name into the search form but it gives me proof that the code is right before continuing on with the post.

[JoeP]

Well, we have a disagreement here then. Legs can resolve what she was really asking for. If it's to have simple smilietexts, then I would agree with the problems as you've mentioned them elsewhere - breaking past posts. We could have a tech solution that maps multiple smilietexts to one smilie ... but that's going to take some motivation.

In my defence, she replied No I just meant :slap:
Unfortunately there is no smilie for that basic of all words... :pissed: rejecting all the 'slap' smilies I posted.

On your side, I think 'hug' is more than adequately covered.

If there are other "basic concepts" not covered, let me dig them up and point them out to you, rather than argue abstractly here.

[livius drusus]

I just don't understand what possible difference could be found between the coverage of hug and the coverage of slap. All the ones that look like slapping cover the basic concept to me, just like all the ones that look like hugging cover the basic hug. Still :confused:.

Legs, can you weigh here on what you meant exactly?

[Gurdur]

:goose:

[pescifish]

Wow, I think I understand what livius is getting at as well as what JoeP is getting at (two different things, from my understanding.)

I have absolutely no idea what Legs meant, since, IMO, we have a lovely array of slap smilies and it's not hard to bring up the seach menu and use the handy click to get the one you want into the post. I.e., I don't see why we have to have a smiley that will come up for the typed text ":slap:".

In other words, I honestly don't think this board needs to support every :whatever_the_hell_someone_thinks_of_but_can't_be_bothered_to_look_up: actual smilietext.

livius, in defense of what JoeP is saying, I have lots of pesci-basic concepts that I type into the search function and come up with dip.
Admittedly pesci-basic is probably more like Real World Odd, but...But I figure that's my own damn fault: the smilies are out there, if I want extra search terms for a particular smiley, I'm pretty sure I could give you a list of terms for a given smiley and you'd add 'em to the database. I'm just a lazy slug and haven't taken the time to make up any lists.

For now, I do what Ymir's blood does: I know the smiley I'm looking for, can't remember the smilietext but remember something I can use for the search that will produce it. And it works great. When new smilies come up, I review them when they are announced so that I put to memory something I know will produce it during a search.

[viscousmemories]

FWIW, I think livius is right about what Legs meant. But that may be because I've long had the same frustration I think she was describing: The failure of a simple verb as smilie text to bring up a relevant smilie. As much as I love the smilie search function, I'm too impatient to go through three extra steps when creating a simple post. So I very often try typing in :slap: :hug: :cry: :scream: or whatever and unfortunately very rarely get a smilie that way (as you can see by the results of the first four that just came to my mind).

We'll be fixing that problem soon, though. Liv is going to take a list of common verbs and associate a smilie with it, and I will then do a search and replace on the post table in the database to change every X to Y. For example, she will probably change :hug: (a hug smilie) to :hug:, and then I will query the database to change every instance of :hug: to :hug:. So the underlying smilie text will change, but the smilies will still show up.

[pescifish]

and then I will query the database to change every instance of :hug: to :hug:.Just curious: will that be a one-time wholesale database content conversion project? Or will this query and substitution happen every time the post is displayed?

[Skep]

We'll be fixing that problem soon, though. Liv is going to take a list of common verbs and associate a smilie with it...
Why limit the list to verbs? Some common nouns might be good too, no?

[viscousmemories]

Wholesale, pesci. When you post a message it gets stored in the database in it's raw text format, and the smileytext to graphic conversion happens on the fly everytime someone views the thread. So I'll just be changing the value of the text in the db.

And you're right Skep, just sloppy phrasing on my part. :)

[livius drusus]

We'll also change the working smileytext to match, pesci. So for instance, I'll make :hug: have a text of :hug:, then vm will run the db query to catch all the old posts up.

[Crumb]

Cool. :1thumbup: Thanks for putting some extra work into this. You are the best admins on the planet. :ffhug:

[pescifish]

Thanks for putting some extra work into this. You are the best admins on the planet. No shit! You really thought this all through. Thanks!

I was only curious as to the "how" 'cuz, well, ya know, that's the kind of stuff we end up having to at work all the time and I'm a data fiend. I :beating: data.