I realize that some people like them; I do NOT. Still, they are popular and one has to learn to live with them. But this author has totally exaggerated. It was difficult to even read the article; I'm not sure I was even able to grasp the content of the article, and have no intention of going back to try to "read" it again,with all those ugly yellow faces ,some of them jumping about...no, no, no. Horrible.

This is just a suggestion, but why don't you copy the text into a Google doc and remove the emoticons? That way, you can read it the way you want.

Just an FYI (for the website in case you didn't know), you can turn off the emoticons if you'd like.

How do I do that, Hamwild? I find them so distracting...

bart2018 said:How do I do that, Hamwild? I find them so distracting...

At the top right of your screen, you should see a little person. Click on that and you'll see a drop down menu pop up. Click on "Settings"


It'll take you to another page where you can edit all of your preferences for the site. Scroll down some and you'll find this option:

Select it and it'll give you the option to select "No, don't show them to me."

Heads up, I think when you see other people's posts that have emojis, it won't show them, but it'll instead show the wording for it. Like, for one of the smiley faces it shows up as ":smily:" (minus the quotation marks). Or ":thinking," ":drool:", etc. So, if you notice someone comment and it has the : : with a word in between, that's an emoji.

bart2018 said: I realize that some people like them; I do NOT. Still, they are popular and one has to learn to live with them. But this author has totally exaggerated. It was difficult to even read the article; I'm not sure I was even able to grasp the content of the article, and have no intention of going back to try to "read" it again,with all those ugly yellow faces ,some of them jumping about...no, no, no. Horrible.

A curmudgeon after my own heart!
If you need a pixelated smiley face bouncing across the page to indicate your enthusiasm for a subject on which you are writing, then I think you've not mastered the written word. Word choice and tone of writing should convey more than just the facts about which you are writing.
That said, I read an article some time ago the premise of which was that people who used emoticons were emotionally more 'in-touch' and had a better outlook on life. I don't remember where the study was published as I have purged it from my memory as to not let science interfere with my "I will never use an emoticon" prejudiced view. Balderdash I say, balderdash!

bart2018 said: I realize that some people like them; I do NOT. Still, they are popular and one has to learn to live with them. But this author has totally exaggerated. It was difficult to even read the article; I'm not sure I was even able to grasp the content of the article, and have no intention of going back to try to "read" it again,with all those ugly yellow faces ,some of them jumping about...no, no, no. Horrible.

You can turn them off in settings!

For a reasonable conversation about this, I think it is important to distinguish the difference between personal/social writing and technical writing. For the former, pretty much anything goes—bring on the emoticons, excessive punctuation, texting abbreviations, relaxed grammar, etc. For the latter, there are well established writing guidelines and most of the NGA articles that I've read have adhered to them, but recently two articles apparently slid past the editing process. There is no place for emoticons or breathless punctuation in informative, instructive articles published in a professional newsletter that has thousands of readers worldwide and that presents itself as a legitimate, authoritative source of gardening information.

However, the fault here lies not with the authors of these articles but with the publisher, who should have edited them for format or required revision. Letters of complaint (which I agree are legitimate) might have been more appropriately and diplomatically directed to NGA management by private mail.

Thank you all so much. Hamwild,hopefully I have managed to eliminate the emoticons following your advice, I am a real dufus when it comes to using computers; didn't even occur to me that this was an option. JBarstool,we think alike. In any case, the whole premise of that study is pretty repellent to me; I don't feel that those ugly faces and whatnot should represent my emotions and thoughts. NMoasis,of course you are right that the fault lies with the publisher who let these two pieces be put into the newsletter. But there was a place for comments on the article, and so I commented.

Hi Yall! I thought the article was timely, informative, and well-written. Since I work in a hospital, I appreciate the health advice to keep all the curmedgeons at home! I visit NGA for R&R away from work, so the emojis don't bother me! I can glance over them, unless they make me smile! Then I go back for a second glance!!!

bart2018 said: I realize that some people like them; I do NOT. Still, they are popular and one has to learn to live with them. But this author has totally exaggerated. It was difficult to even read the article; I'm not sure I was even able to grasp the content of the article, and have no intention of going back to try to "read" it again,with all those ugly yellow faces ,some of them jumping about...no, no, no. Horrible.

I respectfully, but strongly disagree with you.

If writing a dry, technical paper then...sure. Leave the emoticons out. BUT, if you are on a community forum then emoticons are welcome...and expected. It is difficult many times to express emotions simply with the written word unless you're trying for something like 'Gone With The Wind', 'War and Peace', or some other written work where there is an understood and expected time frame to develop characters and emotions. In a short, minimum paragraph essay, intended to be read by a *community* of forum members then the use of emoticons/smilies can express emotions and feelings much faster than trying to develop that in writing.

There has already been instruction shared on how to circumvent the emoticons so there is a solution. But, if the goal is simply to read dry, technical essays then there are plenty of colleges and universities with some really good papers...and no smiley faces.

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