Suggestions

yay!

This has been discussed at length. The code for some emoticons matches things that people unwittingly put in their posts -- in a good half of all posts on the help boards, I would say.

When you type a colon and then hit the enter key to go to a new line, the code for the line-return melds with the colon to make an idiotface emoticon.

I shall demonstrate:

See? That was supposed to say

"I shall demonstrate:"

but it doesn't, it has a yellow blob followed by "br" and a pointy bracket -- the residue of the code for the line-return after the first pointy bracket (square bracket in this code, I believe) is used to make the emoticon.

This cannot be difficult to fix. New codes need to be assigned to the emoticons.

Thousands and thousands of posts on this board are now an unintelligible dog's breakfast because of this.

Could we at least get some kind of answer???

When will the emoticon problem be fixed?

When will the emoticon problem be fixed?

So, when will the emoticon problem be fixed?

:

I just did a search of General Chat for a thread I wanted to look at, and in the search results I noticed another I hadn't seen before that I checked out.

The poster was asking whether anyone had experience with a particular childhood disease. It was a serious question and thread.

Because the poster typed in all-caps, her post included this:

EXPERIENCE

i.e. the X and P combined to make the idiotface for a stuck-out tongue.

It just struck me as highly inappropriate.

The codes that produce emoticons -- the codes are inserted when someone clicks to add an emoticon to a post -- are exactly the same as some of the things that people type as text in posts. The X P is one example.

The most common is still the colon followed by a hard line return, which is typed by many people after a sentence introducing a record copied into a post, and which also occurs repeatedly in records that are copied and pasted into posts.

Instead of a sentence ending in a colon followed by a new paragraph, we are seeing this:

:

and I am sick of it. I keep forgetting to add a space (space bar) after a colon before starting a new paragraph (enter key), and I then have to edit the post to fix the problem so it is comprehensible, particularly to new users who have no idea what is going on when they see that.

(I know that people using certain browsers are not seeing emoticons at all, so they aren't even aware when their posts are seen this way by other users.)

This has got to be a very simple thing to fix. I know of no other discussion board using codes for emoticons where it happens, so it seems like a completely unnecessary problem to have caused in the first place.

When is the emoticon problem going to be fixed?



and I have just had to edit this post because, after all that, I forgot to add a space after each of the colons at the end of two lines in this post ...

EXPERIENCE IS TELLING US THAT GENESREUNITED HAS ABDICATED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROPER FUNCTIONING OF THE MESSAGE BOARDS.

Hahahahahahahaha.


WHEN WILL THE EMOTICON PROBLEM BE FIXED????????????????????


edit -- before the fix that has now been done, that read like this:

E:-PERIENCE IS TELLING US THAT GENESREUNITED HAS
A:-D ICATED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROPER FUNCTIONING
OF THE MESSAGE BOARDS.

;-)

So, how can I EXPLAIN this any more simply?

I feel like the little boy in The Music Man.

(If you are using a browser that doesn't show you emoticons, then sorry you aren't getting the jokes here!)


and that read like this

E :-PLAIN

well, there won't be any GR staff around now until 8 am Monday morning, UK time

Apparently there haven't been any GR staff around for the last couple of weeks, to go by the response to this moronic state of affairs.

true!

Hi,
I have just been looking on the Living Relatives board and Genes have removed all emoticoms.
If they are concerned with Emoticoms being used inappropriately then perhaps they should change the choice that was available.
And it would benefit us all if Genes would stand thier ground and not `baulk` at the first complaint---if that is the case, at the very least give a reason publicly for thier actions.

Chatham Lass I am not against the Finding Living Relatives board per sa I just would like

a. it to be private and post not show up in any general internet search to protect the privacy of the person being sought.

b. it be interactive with other members so that everyone knows what has been sent via private message or to simply see if the seeker has search the trees on this website.

c. to have some kind of intermediatary service on a par with the Salvation Army Tracing Family Service, where the person being sought is asked whether or not they wish to be found or would like contact with the seeker. Also to prepare the seeker for the worst scenario, that the person being sought does not want to know.

d. moderated so that sensitive information about the person being sought is not published without their knowledge or consent. Even if this means a delay in the post being added to the board.

I understand the need to find someone but nobody can be sure of the motives of the seeker. I believe in most cases they are genuine but there is always a possibility that they are not and this should be taken into consideration. This is why in my opinion there should be a buffer between the seeker and the person being sought.

GR have never been known to baulk at complaints and have only changed things in the past when compeling arguments have been presented.

Also in my opinion, as providers of this service they should make it the best service possible otherwise they are doing everyone concerned a disservice.

I can not use emoticons or view them

All I get is jumbled up symbols and letters which make no sense on the threads

Really does need sorting out

Glitter Baby it comes down to the browser you use. If you use IE8 you need to run it in compatibility mode to see the emoticons. IE7 can't see them on this site but can on other sites.

I am using IE8 and compatibility view is ticked and has been for sometime on this site and does not make any difference

Just looked at the properties on IE and there is a mention of compatabilites modes cannot be set on this program becuase it is part of Windows XP

Glitter Baby you need to untick the compatibility view then you will get your emoticons working properly. It was my mistake on my last post. Sorry.

I know most sites its the other way round but I suppose GR has to be different :D

One should not have to change one's browser to suit this site, and I shall not do so :-)

Unticked the compatibility and can now see the emoticons

Not sure I am that bothered with using them but at least it gets rid of those strange mixtures of symbols and letters so the postings do make more sense

Oh

Switched backed to compatibility view as really do not like the emoticon when posting census info on threads

Exactly GB! Every post on this board -- thousands and thousands and thousands of them -- that uses colons at the end of a line (whether in the poster's own text or in copied and pasted census records that have not been reconstructed to make sense) is now a hideous mass of emoticons.

-- and GB -- even though *you* don't see the emoticons in census records you post, everybody using Firefox, for example, does. Including any poor newbie trying to figure out wtf you are throwing all those stupidfaces into the middle of census records for.


And I lol-ed at this in your post:

Just looked at the properties on IE and there is a mention of compatabilites modes cannot be set on this program becuase it is part of Windows XP.

You won't see it -- but because X+P is the code for an emoticon, those of us with the "right" browsers see that as

Windows followed by the emoticon for a stuck-out tongue

that being how I discovered *that* problem in the first place, so that's why words like EXPLAIN in my posts in this thread look ridiculous. It looks like I'm screwing up my face (like the little boy with the lisp in The Music Man) and saying

ECKTHHPLAIN!