A little rant about Emojis and their kin

Update: **LINK**

https://emojitranslate.com/

is available ... but I don't know how good it is

MichaelG.

For finding meanings for emojis in common or not-so-common use, it's completely useless AFAICS.

I don't suppose many Forum Members are in the target demographic but there is big money in Smart Phones where emojis are most useful. Emojis aren't really for us; they're in the same category as me learning the Flossing Dance to impress young ladies. At my time of life, not a good idea.

The first Smart Phone (Apple's iPhone) appeared in 2007. Since then they've caught on spectacularly and, after only 12 years, there are about 3000,000,000 of them in use today. Large revenues come from advertising, percentages on sale of goods and buying online services such as video streaming and porn.

As 3 Billion customers spend a lot of money, anything that can be done to keep users interested in the media is worth doing. It's very like Neil and Diane encouraging people to buy ME and MEW by arranging attractive covers and wonderful content for our gratification.

In my youth the closest thing we had to an emoji experience was pressing Button 'A' or Button 'B' in a public telephone box. I'm just a tiny bit jealous...

Dave

Dave,

Could you please elaborate on the pleasures to be had, from buttons A & B in a PTB (Public Telephone Box).

I cannot recall those at all.

ATB (All The Best),

Daniel

You got your money back if you pressed the right button - I think that was 'B'

Otherwise you pressed 'A' to connect your call

And Lord help you if you were on a 'Party Line'

Regards

It was like playing the slot machines at Vegas! With important news to impart you would trek to the phone box through a blizzard. Often other people would already be waiting to use it. Once in the box you would ask the operator to make a long distance connection for you. She - never a man - would tell you how much money to put in and count the dings as the coins hit bells inside until she knew enough money had been taken. Then the other phone would be allowed to ring. If someone answered, pressing Button A would allow conversation to take place. If no-one answered, pressing Button B would get your money back in a shower of coins. Marvellous! Emotional collapse if button 'A' was pressed and it turned out to be a wrong number.

An international call was same performance on steroids. You had to wait until the operator could get an international connection and it usually took ages. Then a lot more money went in and you got about a minute to chat before the operator interrupted to demand more cash.

Truly living on the edge. This roller-coaster was high entertainment compared with chilblains, boiled cabbage and Boy's Own Paper!

Dave

Thank's for the explanation FMES & Dave.

Probably was a bit before my time.

I think you left out rickets and transportation for stealing a sheep

To find the meaning of an emoji hover the mouse over it

Dave

Didn't you try tap dialling? That was always exciting, well slightly. You never knew who you might speak to.

.

That's useful here on the forum, Nick ...

but those smileys are only a very small sub-set of emoji.

https://emojipedia.org

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/07/2019 19:56:25

In 2007 a survey demonstrated that the 'pile of poo emoji' was the most useful one:

💩

The curious reason for this is that in Japan the word for a pile of poo is a pun on good luck. To the point where you can wish someone good luck by giving them a golden poo ornament.

However, it's now languishing some way down the real time emoji use list.

This isn't a joke, just a reminder that something we find bewildering may have a completly different significance in another culture.

Neil

Fair comment I only checked on here where it works in posts as well as the emoji pick list.

They do talk in a screen reader in other contexts, but while I often have it enabled it is not 100%, so it is a fair cop. (tried to find emoji of a policeman to increase the irony, but it would not paste in. )

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 21:01:01

Neil - I appreciate the golden poo has a different significance in other cultures, but seeing your picture I just want to give one to my boss - saying 'Its good luck honest!!'

(tried to find emoji of a policeman to increase the irony, but it would not paste in. )

.

Taken as read, Nick

MichaelG.

Although not an enthusiast for emojis, I looked in vain for an emoji to express "sorry to hear you are leaving us, you will be much missed, hope to see you return shortly" to enter in the TTFN thread.
DaveD

.

I tried putting your expression into this, Dave: **LINK**

https://emojitranslate.com/

The pathetic result sums-up the usefulness of emojis I think.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. ... If you can't face the prospect of visiting the site; here is its result:

🙇 to 👂️ ➡️👤 are 🚪⬆️ 👥⬅️, ➡️👤 will be much missed, 🔮 to 👀 ➡️👤 ↪️ shortly

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/07/2019 20:12:03

^^^Thank you Michael, indeed, point proved. insert smiley here !
However, once again I find myself behind the curve having just read AndrewJohnston's post about his 'sabbatical'
Very good news.
DaveD

What i wanna know is why as a model engineering website this one doesn’t have emojis that are more in line with what is generally discussed on the forum like a traction engine etc etc . One forum i used to frequent has animated emoji thingies and aren’t they annoying ! Trying to read a post while some damned little characters runs around is most distracting!

I tried tapping but rarely got anywhere, perhaps I should have practised more? (On second thoughts I had plenty of other outlets for my misspent youth!)

Relying on faulty memory, other tricks:

• There was a four digit number that rang you back, excellent for practical jokes.
• Another 4-digit number measured the accuracy of dial pulses. It always answered 'Dolty filing pulzes', a mystery until I eventually realised it was reporting 'Faulty Dialling Pulses'.
• There was a system of two digit prefix codes that interconnected adjacent exchanges at local rates. A black-market table made it possible to dial-long distance at local rates by building chains of local calls across the country. Not very practical!
• It was possible to tie up all the lines available between two adjacent exchanges by alternating their corresponding codes until you got an Unavailable tone. (ie if Bath to Bristol was 91, and Bristol to Bath was 92, then dialling 9192919291929192 would eat 8 connections.)

All this had to be done from a call-box. Home telephones were far too important to be played with and touching it would bring an instant rebuke.

Similar fun can be had with emojis. Originally intended as a simple way of clarifying ambiguous text, they've bloated and become misused, complicated, confusing, and annoying. (Animated emoji are pure evil.)

All complex systems have loopholes and cracks that are fun to explore. Me playing with the phone system circa 1965, ha ha, is not dissimilar from the current generation peppering the internet with daft emojis, also ha, ha. It's only the grown-ups who get upset, but don't worry disapproving is our job!

Dave