Aliasing :( -> frown.
Aliasing c: -> smile.
Aliasing ;) -> wink.
Aliasing :p -> tongue_out.

These emoticon tags shouldn't really exist, especially as there's better tags with more posts

720p said:
Aliasing :( -> frown.
Aliasing c: -> smile.
Aliasing ;) -> wink.
Aliasing :p -> tongue_out.

These emoticon tags shouldn't really exist, especially as there's better tags with more posts

Good idea!

What about the following:

:3
^_^

And other permutations thereof?

Digital_Kindness said:
What about the following:

:3
^_^

And other permutations thereof?

I couldn't find any better existing tag for those, and I don't know what to alias them to.

720p said:
I couldn't find any better existing tag for those, and I don't know what to alias them to.

smile and more smile

NotMeNotYouMobile said:
smile and more smile

I think there's a distinction worth being made between :) and :3, I just don't know how to describe it concisely.

If only ^_^ could be aliased to both eyes_closed and smile. But then, the idea is that ^_^ represents both on the same character, which isn't necessarily the case with individual tags.

Regarding ^_^: People can just search for eyes_closed and smile in the same image, then. Pointless to have the emoticon.

Regarding :3: This represents a "devious cat's smile", kind of like "look what I did there" or "aren't I so cute-yet-sneaky" or that sort of thing. It represents an entire face's expression, and is about the only emoticon I can think of at the moment that even has a purpose.

Foobaria said:
Regarding ^_^: People can just search for eyes_closed and smile in the same image, then. Pointless to have the emoticon.

Regarding :3: This represents a "devious cat's smile", kind of like "look what I did there" or "aren't I so cute-yet-sneaky" or that sort of thing. It represents an entire face's expression, and is about the only emoticon I can think of at the moment that even has a purpose.

You already said it, devious smile.
This should be a good enough description of that facial expression.

As for ^_^, This is a rather normal, "true" smile because the entire face lights up, not only the mouth region.
So I don't really know if we even should differentiate between false and true smiles.

If we would decide we need every smile we would also need good_smile, evil_smile, cold_smile, failed_smile, the oh_my_god_stop_smiling_smile (one of the latter panels) and probably a couple more.

This would also open the door for much drama regarding tagging emotions if we did.

720p said:
Aliasing :( -> frown.
Aliasing c: -> smile.
Aliasing ;) -> wink.
Aliasing :p -> tongue_out.

These emoticon tags shouldn't really exist, especially as there's better tags with more posts

I couldn't not agree more.

Well, devious_smile wouldn't really capture the feline nature of the expression, so maybe kitty_smile?

I said
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE2892BAB1B42B9C
Enjoy ^_0

At some point the emoticons become more descriptive than the words we're trying to alias them to.

While things like :), C:, :(, and :C can be aliased easily because they near-exclusively represent smiles and frowns, even moderately more complex emoticons such as the suggested ;) and :P are significantly harder to alias because just one can carry both multiple denotations (like wink and smile in the former) and connotations (like teasing and silly in the latter).

Ultimately we want to ask ourselves what term most completely and efficiently communicates the full spirit of the tag to the average user regardless of the format of the term itself.

MaShCr said:
;) and :P

wink and tongue_out work just fine for those, to be honest. To me the first one has always just meant winking, without any extra connotation to it. The second is just someone with their tongue out.

Digital_Kindness said:
wink and tongue_out work just fine for those, to be honest. To me the first one has always just meant winking, without any extra connotation to it. The second is just someone with their tongue out.

And that is one of these reason why tagging emotions would be a bad idea.
Sure, we can all agree on the basics like frown, smile, wink, tongue_out and a couple others but as soon as we want to add emotions, intentions and the like to the mimic we open the box of pandora.

I am either for only the basics like frown, smile and a couple others or to just keep the emoticons.

ikdind said:
Well, devious_smile wouldn't really capture the feline nature of the expression, so maybe kitty_smile?

Hm, dictionary says sly would work a bit better but the point is still the same, a picture (or the emoticon) says more than a thousand words and I really don't want to create tags that rival our that_one_bug_that_looks_like_a_croissant_that_you_can_freeze_and_use_as_a_platform just to make sure we describe it properly.

NotMeNotYouMobile said:
that_one_bug_that_looks_like_a_croissant_that_you_can_freeze_and_use_as_a_platform

Holy shit.