[UA] Re: Emoticons

[Chad Underkoffler]

> From: "Patrick None" <deadairis at hotmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 20:00:31 -0700
> 
> > > The problem is, it seems kinda counterproductive to
> > > POINT OUT that you're being dry, sarcastic or witty
> > > with an emoticon.  It's makes the author seem
> > > completely the opposite of dry, sarcastic and witty.
> >
> > Exactly.
>
> Except that, within the context of email - or IM - a lot of 
> writing styles are nothing like their standard written forms. 
> (noting this is just based on observation; I haven't gotten 
> the theory coherent enough to start any research). In email, 
> you have things like the above two clipped sections, followed
> by my response, possibly followed by another. It creates a
> style that isn't like letters going back and forth quickly but
> spoken word going back and forth very slowly.

Which is exactly what I said in #2 in my initial post on this
subject.

> Emoticons don't, typically, replace good, clever, and clear
> writing, but rather a smile or a pat on the shoulder. Anyways,
> that's my theory.

And again, as I said in #5 in my initial post:

"5. I think emoticons should be used as indicators of the
writer's emotions, not to indicate the emotional intent,
accompanying facial expression, or subtext of a line of prose."

And I still think that as they are not necessary for
communication, are informal, and slangy, they should be used
between friends/associates in informal conversations. Formal
conversations -- and I view most any post to a mailing list or
message board as somewhat formal, and try not to use them.

Note that I violate my own edict on occasion -- I am vast; I
contain multitudes.

> > Emoticons aren't really appropriate for business 
> > communications, at least not in my end of the world (both
> > day-job and the various managerial communications course 
> > I've taken). They're seen as unprofessional.
>
> Since I haven't spent much time exchanging buisness emails,
> how do you think emoticons unprofessionalness in buisness 
> email relates to my theory (above), if at all?

Well, I know that informal/unprofessional emails -- the sorts
that are likely to contain emoticons -- have caused companies
mucho mucho problems during the discovery phase of legal
proceedings. Indeed, all the advice I've recieved from work
associates and instructors is to recall business email is
legal/commerce correspondence, which means it's important to be
formal across the board.

ObUA: OPERATION: EROTICON: Someone emails some NG information (a
jpg, perhaps?) from their work account, unfortunately crashing
the system and hosing its external comm links. The PCs are hired
to extract the worker's PC and the company mailserver intact so
as to find the target email in the mail buffer. 



=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"Now that is the kind of puddin' that only two-hundred forty dollars can buy."
  -- Barry, $240 Worth of Pudding, THE STATE

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