I’m pretty curious, but that’s more a personality trait than a current mood. I find it highly ironic that someone who does not like animated gifs in place of words has produced web forum software that does very well at supporting them.
See also
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They used to say “the camera doesn’t lie,” and “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Of those two cliches, only one is still true in the 21st century.
And here’s an image that speaks to the idea of being unable to dictate every aspect of one’s creation:
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Eh, we’re both pretty used to it by now. I wouldn’t say she enjoys it, but I assume she prefers it to being dead.
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Now you’re getting the hang of it! 
And that pug is totally adorable. 
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The information density of writing is several orders of magnitude higher than that of pictures. That is why writing exists and it’s why people like Jeff and myself have a prejudice against pictorial conversation; it’s wastefully inefficient from the viewpoint of a professional technologist, and that’s the viewpoint we’re required to have in order to create things as useful and scalable as this BBS.
I have a similar prejudice against non-creative or “caveman” interfaces, but I don’t always have to use one (and most of my work can’t be done with one). A conversation has two or more participants, so each side has the ability to shape it; one might post uniquely crafted expressions unfortunately nestled deep in a turgid wall of prolix prose, while another might simply select a generic, uncrafted choice from a library or menu of other people’s work, yet another might combine creativity with pre existing elements.
I think @codinghorror prefers to see others thoughts through the medium of text, where the signal to noise ratio and information density is far higher.
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recent experience makes that debatable
Or by post-like activities that include (but are not limited to) hitting certain buttons beneath posts that can only be hit once and not reversed after 5 minutes?
.
Yeah.
WAITTAMINUTE - wasn’t this supposed to be a party??!??
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No one is forcing anyone here to engage anyone else.
And thanks for the “rain”; the ‘parade’ really “needed” it.
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Depends on the text, and depends on the picture.
Two different points conflated here. Personal skill in deciphering text versus image is one thing – and not something you can automatically assume is equal in all humans – and website efficiency is quite another. The second point has a lot of merit, but I feel like you’re the first person to actually state that issue in this context.
With regard to the idea of [quote]signal to noise ratio and information density
[/quote]
I would offer the example of the religion thread where one poster had dozens of us thinking they were possibly a bot because of the large walls of text they would post that didn’t seem to relate to anything anyone else said…after a concerted effort to enliven the conversation by posting songs about love (mostly secular), we are now getting a real conversation going with them. We TRIED text, for months. Didn’t work. It took images and sound to disrupt the status quo.
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We are, each of us, Left Shark
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Part of the reason I at times devolve into animated gif-land (when it’s a case of disagreement, not necessarily for silliness) is that some people aren’t worth the time to type out a response, quite frankly. As a historian, part of my job in the world is communication through writing… Sometimes, it’s a joy to debate and disagree with my fellow happy mutants here. It sharpens my views quite a bit. But sometimes, it’s not a joy, it’s a hassle - especially when the person I’m communicating with isn’t hooked into the concept of mutual respect. I see no reason to treat some rando dude mansplainin’ to me the same way as I treat you say, someone who I like and respect and often still often disagree.
Additionally, writing isn’t the only viable mode of communication. We create meaning out of any number of ways, and visually is one of them and it’s entirely legitimate to do so.
But that’s my $.02 on the matter. Take it or leave it…
And of course, if how I interact with others here on the problem, the mods are welcome to give me a time out. Like you, I’ve never had a suspension and I like to think it’s because even if I have a bad day and step over a line here or there, that for the most part my interactions here are valued and respected. I could be wrong about that, but I like to think that.
But that doesn’t explain why our friend @Melizmatic got banned twice recently, especially since one of those was because she responded to someone harassing her.
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I made this for a different web site but it’s still quite apt.
I generally use images to emphasize or punctuate a point, but there are truly some people out there who do not merit the full range of my verbal capacity; especially in cases where I’ve already asserted my perspective repeatedly, only to be dismissed or ignored.
So true.
Again, no comment.
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We need some music, clearly.
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That’ll do.
*lolz
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Is there a way we can pull my derail of this thread out into another separate one?
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Let it stand.
You feel how you feel; and I’m not so thin skinned or immature that I think content that doesn’t align perfectly with my personal viewpoint needs to be removed or dismissed out of hand.
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