...:smiliemoment:...

...

I thought I might make a permanent record of the origin of the ...:smiliemoment:..., a 'phrase' that I use occasionally ... OK, maybe frequently, on the web.

I have always disliked using ordinary emoticons or static/animated smilies. Regular text/character emoticons just seemed a little goofy to me. So I generally did not use them.

When I did . . .things seemed to go wrong. In fact, I was once taken to task for using an emoticon/smilie to inadequately deflect the true meaning of a post on a message board. The poster replied with their own silly little post filled with silly jabs and pokes at me and then posted a smilie at the end.

Image source: schoschie via flickr dot com

Their point was that a smilie did not always mitigate the content of a post.


At that moment I invented my own silly ...:smiliemoment:... Which could be embedded with a descriptive statement. ...:likethissmiliemoment:...

So now when I am just teasing, I can leave a ...:justteasingsmiliemoment:...

If I am saying something so 'outrageous' and so jokingly that it should not need explanation that I am kidding it would result in ...:donotmakemeuseasmiliemoment:...


Part of the 'fun' (or torture) of others reading a ...:smiliemoment:... is deciphering or 'parsing' the hidden message in it. ...:ifyouknowwhatimeansmiliemoment:... At least some have told me they find it interesting.


Over time, the need for a 'quick' smilie evolved into a shorter version. Namely the ...:minism:...


Anyway. So now I use them all over the web, even for audiences that may not know what they mean.

But at least now if you see me leaving a ...:smiliemoment:... somewhere you now might have a better idea of what it means and why I use them.


Next lesson: sleeper's/...tom...'s use of ...smalllol...


...tom...

A collection of more text emoticons than I ever suspected existed...
.