Want better discussions on these forums? Disable "reactions."

[Skyhawke]

[PeregrineFalcon]

On 7/13/2025 at 8:56 PM, temnix said:

Disable "reactions" and let people actually state what they want to say, if anything.

 

Here's why that won't work:

 

[GayStar]

18 hours ago, Maelwys said:

 i fully support this.  you may quote me

 

[WanderingAries]

Lived in French West Africa for a bit. We taught the local eatery guys the joys of Hawaiian Pizza (Pineapple, ham, bacon...) so that we could then order it from them for meals. Went great with the Orangina (in the classic French glass bulb container). The pizza dough (their making) was...different from what one would expect back home.

[WanderingAries]

6 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

 

Here's why that won't work:

 

 

Heh, I was thinking more old-school Emoticons. 😛

 

[Ukase]

14 hours ago, battlewraith said:

I take it to mean that they are signaling that you're opinion is bizarre, not that it's actually confusing. 

Then why not just say it, with actual words? As evidenced by a number of posts here, these "reactions" are not clear indicators of anything. 

The irony of confusing people with a confused reaction is almost funny. 

[tidge]

17 minutes ago, Ukase said:

The irony of confusing people with a confused reaction is almost funny. 

 

 

[JasperStone]

I use the moose icon and hear his voice

Edited 10 hours ago by JasperStone

[battlewraith]

48 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Then why not just say it, with actual words? As evidenced by a number of posts here, these "reactions" are not clear indicators of anything. 

The irony of confusing people with a confused reaction is almost funny. 

 

Because they aren't communication, they're just signaling. Like when you watch a reaction video and people drop in memes as a lazy shorthand to indicate that something's funny, stupid, boring, whatever. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

Then why not just say it, with actual words?

Because, quite often, people just want to let you know their opinion of your post without confrontation, without the arguments, the nit picking, the goal-post moving, and without worrying that they'll post something that will trigger draconian moderation.

 

So if you really want better discussions on this forum, quit being dicks to each other, and stop speed shotgunning the report button every time someone posts something that you don't like.

[Luminara]

6 hours ago, battlewraith said:

Because they aren't communication, they're just signaling.

 

Signaling is a form of communication.

 

6 hours ago, battlewraith said:

Like when you watch a reaction video and people drop in memes as a lazy shorthand to indicate that something's funny, stupid, boring, whatever. 

 

So... communicating.

[battlewraith]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

Signaling is a form of communication.

 

Sure, if you want to be pedantic about it. 

I'm drawing a distinction between actually using language to express a specific meaning and flashing a symbol, which may or may not be meaningful to the recipient. 

[Major_Decoy]

8 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

I'm drawing a distinction between actually using language to express a specific meaning and flashing a symbol, which may or may not be meaningful to the recipient. 

That's a problem with any medium of communication.

 

Words are not necessarily meaningful the the recipient. Green numbers vitiate ceremoniously.

 

You, for example, do not understand what a symbol is. Words are a subset of symbols.

[battlewraith]

7 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

That's a problem with any medium of communication.

 

Words are not necessarily meaningful the the recipient. Green numbers vitiate ceremoniously.

 

You, for example, do not understand what a symbol is. Words are a subset of symbols.

 

The extent to which it's a problem varies. 

The expectation that someone here will understand what I'm saying expressed as English language in alphanumeric characters is vastly greater than through emojis.

 

But, hey, I'm always willing to learn. Maybe you can render this statement "The extent to which it's a problem varies." in forum emojis for me. Those are the two types of expression between which I was drawing a distinction.

[Major_Decoy]

12 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

Maybe you can render this statement "The extent to which it's a problem varies." in forum emojis for me. Those are the two types of expression between which I was drawing a distinction.

Not every language develops in such a way to easily communicate the same ideas. An idea that might be easy to communicate in one language might be difficult in another. I know which of these symbols better communicates an idea to me.

 

But as it relates to any language, if you don't make an effort to understand it, you won't understand it. Not everyone is going to be making a good faith effort to communicate or understand, no matter how they're trying to communicate.

[battlewraith]

9 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

But as it relates to any language, if you don't make an effort to understand it, you won't understand it.

Which is why I specified:

 

30 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

The expectation that someone here will understand what I'm saying expressed as English language in alphanumeric characters is vastly greater than through emojis.

 

[Major_Decoy]

I will agree that there are more options for communicating in English than there are for communicating in forum emojis, but depending on the idea being expressed, forum emojis are potentially a much more concise way to communicate.

 

If I were trying to communicate "The extent to which it's a problem varies" in forum emojis, I would go with moose, but there are a lot of homonyms in forum emoji so context is very important.

Edited 1 hour ago by Major_Decoy

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, battlewraith said:

I'm drawing a distinction between actually using language to express a specific meaning and flashing a symbol, which may or may not be meaningful to the recipient.

 

You mean the burden of comprehension is on the speaker, not the listener.  And I agree with that.  But this isn't about having an extended, in-depth conversation in which two parties are attempting to express complex concepts.  That's not the purpose of emoji, nor the intent behind their use, and decrying that use because they fail to fulfill a markedly narrow constraint of communication is disingenuous.  And this isn't pedantry, it's placing things in context.

 

Some people just don't want to talk.  Some people don't have time to debate.  Some people feel that emoji are sufficient for their communication requirements.  Some people don't feel that they can communicate any other way.  Whether or not the listener comprehends what the speaker is saying is irrelevant in this context, because the right to speak is more important.

 

Everyone has that right, even if it's only through emoji reactions.  Their voice, their choice.

[battlewraith]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

And this isn't pedantry, it's placing things in context.

 

The context was me explaining to Ukase, who takes pains to communicate clearly, why someone would use an emoji rather than just saying the intended meaning. To him, I suspect there's an expectation of clarity. To me the emoji is "just signaling" in the same way that someone might shrug rather than answering a question directly.  It's trading less effort for more ambiguity, assuming that it isn't some form of trolling or evasiveness. 

 

Somehow this has mutated into me infringing on people's rights to bear emojis. Sweet baby Jesus why are there so many people stamping their feet about what they are allowed or have the right to do?

[golstat2003]

9 hours ago, battlewraith said:

 

Because they aren't communication, they're just signaling. Like when you watch a reaction video and people drop in memes as a lazy shorthand to indicate that something's funny, stupid, boring, whatever. 

orrrrrr aka Welcome to the Internet.

 

😝

[JasperStone]

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

Some people just don't want to talk.  Some people don't have time to debate.  Some people feel that emoji are sufficient for their communication requirements.  Some people don't feel that they can communicate any other way.  Whether or not the listener comprehends what the speaker is saying is irrelevant in this context, because the right to speak is more important.

 

Everyone has that right, even if it's only through emoji reactions.  Their voice, their choice.

This....all of this.

Thank you.

[skoryy]

10 hours ago, JasperStone said:

I use the moose icon and hear his voice

 

"Chernobog get moose and squirrel!"