Smileys for the 2015 forum

[Simon]

Hi folks,

I propose the following smiley changes.

:o -> , replacing the current
:clam: ->

The huge eyes were suggested back in 2011, but the admins of the 2009-2014 forum instance didn't react.

-- Simon

[Leo]

These smileys are completely useless. It's nonsense to have smileys without a mouth. The best idea is to redraw them all to something more appropriate.

[Mindless]

I don't think  and huge eyes are quite the same emotion -- huge eyes is closer to  which I like the way it is.

Clam, on the other hand, should certainly be added.  I don't know what emotion it represents, but it is relevant.

[Wafflem]

Hi folks,

I propose the following smiley changes.

-> , replacing the current
:clam: ->

The huge eyes were suggested back in 2011, but the admins of the 2009-2014 forum instance didn't react.

-- Simon

I actually like the huge eyes, they really show a lot more emotion than the current shocked emotion. But I'm guessing since not a lot of people may be fond of the huge eyes, perhaps both emotions should be kept, and the huge eyes one should be labeled as "Shocked 2"

Add the clam, too.

[Proxima]

  is fine, and I hate the proposed replacement.

[geoo]

How has this one not been proposed yet:

For the new smiley, I think an addition would definitely be better than a replacement due to different preferences here.

[NaOH]

The huge eyes were suggested back in 2011, but the admins of the 2009-2014 forum instance didn't react.

I prefer the other smiley that Simon suggested at the time:

Come to think of it, it reminds me of Prob Lem's old avatar.

And here's one I made from combining the  eyes with the face:

[NaOH]

I just realized geoo's smiley has the clam eyes. 

On IRC:

<SimonN> yes, nobody wants the O_O smiley despite it being the most expressive, so what's the constructive criticism except "I like the other(s) better"
<NaOH> It's too expressive
<SimonN> isn't that a design pattern for smileys?
<NaOH> it's more expressive than the other smileys. It has so much expression I can't really take it seriously.
<NaOH> It's too cartoonish.
<SimonN> hmm
<SimonN> and you don't want cartooney smileys?
<NaOH> cartoonishness is a relative scale
<SimonN> okay
<NaOH> the other smileys are relatively mellow.
<SimonN> my gripe is that they differ only by a few tiny pixels, it's too hard to see what it is

[ccexplore]

These smileys are completely useless. It's nonsense to have smileys without a mouth. The best idea is to redraw them all to something more appropriate.

Do an image search on Google and you might realize that in many instances of Lemmings box art, they do tend to exaggerate the eyes while de-emphasizing (even omitting) the nose and mouth.  So the smileys we currently have actually conformed to that style pretty decently.  So far I personally have not found the lack of mouths to be much of a problem, though I admit it's quite the irony to have smileys technically without actual "smiles" per se.

================

Anyhow, I think I do prefer over , although I'm actually fine even sticking with what we currently have.  I'd rather get a new smiley for "sarcastic rolling eyes" similar to this (but Lemming-fied of course): .

Love the clam, although to be quite honest, I'm not sure what it really means and therefore how I would actually use it.

How has this one not been proposed yet:

That looks more like "Lemming with exaggeratedly over-cute Anime-style eyes" to me.  So no (unless you're going for that).

[Prob Lem]

Come to think of it, it reminds me of Prob Lem's old avatar.

Surely my current one? I only have this one and the Christmas one.

Anyway, I really like Simon's proposed "shocked" variant, even though I also like the existing one as well. The other proposed one with slightly narrower eyes doesn't really look as shocked to me, because it reminds me of Dizzy's idle expression in Fantastic Dizzy for the Mega Drive and Amiga.

Do an image search on Google and you might realize that in many instances of Lemmings box art, they do tend to exaggerate the eyes while de-emphasizing (even omitting) the nose and mouth.

And then there's the other issue - two of the Lemmings art-styles clash, which also makes a possible difference here. In older artwork (circa Lemmings/ONML to Lomax or so), when shown at all, the lemmings' mouths are clearly set fairly far back under their snouts (i.e., they seem to have quite shallow jaws). This is different to the Sony-era art, where their mouths are instead placed virtually at the tip of their snouts (i.e., where you might think a nose would go). The former doesn't really show from a front-view like our smileys employ (you'd need a three-quarters view for that, or for them to tip their heads back a little to show emotion ), and the latter looks anything from incredibly strange to borderline scary depending on what emotion is being displayed. Just some random input from my lore/art-style-watching self.

[Leo]

Do an image search on Google and you might realize that in many instances of Lemmings box art, they do tend to exaggerate the eyes while de-emphasizing (even omitting) the nose and mouth.  So the smileys we currently have actually conformed to that style pretty decently.  So far I personally have not found the lack of mouths to be much of a problem, though I admit it's quite the irony to have smileys technically without actual "smiles" per se.

I know how they looks, but that's hardly an excuse to make all smileys unrecognizable.
But, if we want to be complete Lemmings purists, then we can only use original sprite head of 4x4 pixels. Let's see... it's exactly like that:
We can use that one for all smileys and pretend that this is not a stupid thing.

[Mindless]

How has this one not been proposed yet:

This is hilarious, but there's no way.

Anyhow, I think I do prefer over , although I'm actually fine even sticking with what we currently have.

Agreed.

NaOH has created an additional lix emoticon -- -- of which I wholeheartedly approve.

[ccexplore]

I know how they looks, but that's hardly an excuse to make all smileys unrecognizable.

You're most welcome to create a full set of smileys with mouths, and then I can maybe look into putting them somewhere in addition to our existing set [edit: or possibly look into incorporating them as an alternate forum style or something that you can set for your own profile].  Otherwise it wouold appear you are overwhelmingly outvoted on this so far.

[hint: insulting other people's choices are normally not the best way to entice them to do anything for you.  I'm not really sure why I feel so accommodating.]

[Clam]

My opinion on the big-eyed smileys: > > . (But for actual inclusion in the smiley options I'd go with .)

And you use when you feel clammy, of course

[namida]

I am partly tempted to include that 4x4 lemming head, though...