Sebbie on the Webbie

Posts Tagged ‘smileys’

I love emoticons. A lot of people do, and if you’re running a forum, spending a bit of time for finding great emoticons does pay off. The default sets on  most forum software are simply boring and ugly. The good news is that you can find awesome emoticons for free. The bad news is that it takes a little bit of time, and again, the good news is that you probably only need one site to find them on. Then you need a bit of time to set them up for your forum, but do save them on the computer in case you’re a serial forum admin, because you can reuse the same set you have – and maybe add some topic specific in there if you want. Remember to find replacements for the most commonly used at least; those in the picture.

During the years I’ve been working with forums, I always get positive feedback about the emoticons, and when I’m talking to the people on some other site, they often refer to the forum emoticons by typing a description of it in the message like: *the cute hugging smiley* or similar. Doesn’t that tell you how much people love them?

Okay, so here’s a link to my favorite place to find emoticons – Deviant Art, naturally. (Oh there’s some new cute ones, I wanna get a few, too…)

If you are setting up or running a forum, one of the most important things with creating a relaxed atmosphere is to select the right emotioncs for your boards. That may sound funny, but on every forum I’ve ever run, I have had a set of carefully selected emoticons, and people LOVE them. On one board, they came such a part of the community, that I felt compelled to give them a week off from work. (This was to rearrange them really, but I informed people that they have been working so hard that I’m giving them a week off.) The response was hilarious. People didn’t want to see them go, but understood their need for rest and requested post cards from their holiday resort. (And indeed got a photo with all those emoticons in front of an European church.)

When ever I’m a member of a discussion board that only allows the basic set of yellow faces, I feel kind of depressed. It tells me that this board is SERIOUS, and the guy running it doesn’t really care about the members. The set of emoticons that are available on a board, also tell me about the sense of humour on the board, and topics that area allowed. (You can get rather naughty little emoticons if you look for them!) There is a wonderful world of emoticons out there, let me tell you! They make you laughThey make you cry.. and when you’re feeling low, they give you a hug.

To help you to get started, I have collected a basic set of smileys for you to use instead of those awful yellow ones. It still comes with Mr. Green though, as there’s nothing better than Mr. Green! (What? You didn’t know he had a name?!)

Download the groovy basic smiley set

As far as I know all these emoticons have been published in the public domain. I have mainly downloaded them at Deviant Art, which has a great section for emoticons!

One word of advice though: Don’t put all the icons into the post form, but set most of them into the pop-up window, as having a lot of them clickable will slow down your forum. Put the most used icons on the form and the rest of them behind the “more” screen. Also when selecting post forum icons, stick with the standard sized icons, that won’t stretch the rows too much, or it’ll look quite messy.

Then wait to see the reactions when you put up more smileys! I quarantee your members will be stoked!