Passive Aggressive Emoji's plaguing the forums

[Dravvi.3146]

Kinda gonna make this one a bit short and sweet.

So I have noticed an increased uptick in "confused"  and "haha" emoji's by people who either disagree with topics or generally want to insult/belittle others on the forums in their posts, not going to lie this is in part because we don't have a downvote bomb option which makes me curious. Is this an intended thing the devs wish to be abused?

Can someone explain this system to me?

[Xerac.1542]

At first glance I really hoped this was going to be a nice poem about the reactions usage. After reading, it is just a weird formatting choice and does not contain a single rhyme. 

Confused emoji/10

Wouldn't read again. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Xerac.1542

[Freya.9075]

confused emoji usually means they disagree with you. I don't think that many use it to troll or be disrespectful. Ofc some of this will always exist, but in general it just means they disagree with you. Which should be fine. Haha is usually used when you actually find it funny. I've rarely seen it used in a bad manner.

The key to deal with these is to not think so much about them. It's just other peoples opinions or trolls. I use emojis if I agree with someone and use confused emoji if I really dislike what someone said. And sometimes it's a genuine confused reaction. If it's just opinions, I reply if I want to say my piece. And I think most forum users are like this. Some people here are more active with the confused reaction, but that's fine if that's what they want to do. Reactions doesn't mean as much as you think it does. These reactions affect you as much as you allow. 

[lezbefriends.7516]

People use confused emoji about things that aren't confusing, just controversial. So they use it as a downvote.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It is intended, as the Moderators have posted. 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Inculpatus cedo.9234
clearing up 'confusion'

[AzureTerra.1642]

Emoji's functioning as implemented, OP is reading too far into what they may or may not mean.

[Skynet.7201]

It's like a "Kitten" emoji (yes, I actually typed Kitten, it's not autocorrected). The downvote intent is there, but this is more palatable to sensitive people.

Or not, in the case of this post.

[Morticoccus.6540]

If you can't handle the Kitten, don't look in the cat carrier, it's that simple.

[Dr Meta.3158]

7 hours ago, Dravvi.3146 said:

Kinda gonna make this one a bit short and sweet.

So I have noticed an increased uptick in "confused"  and "haha" emoji's by people who either disagree with topics or generally want to insult/belittle others on the forums in their posts, not going to lie this is in part because we don't have a downvote bomb option which makes me curious. Is this an intended thing the devs wish to be abused?

Can someone explain this system to me?

Children on forums

They seek others misery

Their parents have failed

[yoni.7015]

If you feel insulted by an emoji in a games forum, the problem is not the emoji. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Westenev.5289]

I genuinely want to use the laugh emoji when a post makes me laugh, but I get the feeling it comes off as sarcastic. Kinda wish "confused" was the only community accepted mocking emote.

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

Emoji and Plague really don't belong in the same sentence.    

[Dr Meta.3158]

7 minutes ago, Blockhead Magee.3092 said:

Emoji and Plague really don't belong in the same sentence.    

The emoji movie was a plague on cinema.

[DexterousGecko.6328]

2 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

If you feel insulted by an emoji in a games forum, the problem is not the emoji. 

Could you expand on that? Why should someone not feel insulted by something that is being used to insult someone?

[kharmin.7683]

8 minutes ago, DexterousGecko.6328 said:

Could you expand on that? Why should someone not feel insulted by something that is being used to insult someone?

Can it be definitively said that a specific instance of a specific emoji is intended to be an insult?  Unless the person who places it says so, how can one be completely certain?

[yoni.7015]

32 minutes ago, DexterousGecko.6328 said:

Could you expand on that? Why should someone not feel insulted by something that is being used to insult someone?

Is it used to insult someone or is it used to show that you disagree? 
How is it used to insult someone? It’s just an emoji in a forum. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Linken.6345]

1 minute ago, yoni.7015 said:

Is it used to insult someone or is it used to show that you disagree? 

Well maybe someone feel insulted by someone else not agreeing with them?

[DexterousGecko.6328]

I'm not remotely convinced that the "confused" emoji is being used as a generic "i disagree". I'd bet that if there was a neutral disagree emoji and the confused emoji, people would still use the confused one more just to have that added edge of mockery. imo of course.

[Ashantara.8731]

9 hours ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

People use confused emoji about things that aren't confusing, just controversial. So they use it as a downvote.

They often downvote mere facts as well. Dumb.

[Svarty.8019]

Have you all forgotten that the forum used to have thumbs down or something. The ability to be negative got removed because it was used. Now we all walk around with fixed grins. Everything's great guys, it's just great in a different way. But I can't express what kind of way. 😄 Cheese.

[Aragmor.5786]

Insulted by "confused"  or "haha" emoji... now we need to cancel emojis?  

[DexterousGecko.6328]

5 minutes ago, Aragmor.5786 said:

Insulted by "confused"  or "haha" emoji... now we need to cancel emojis?  

that's a great idea, they add nothing of substance to discussion.

[Chichimec.9364]

10 hours ago, Freya.9075 said:

confused emoji usually means they disagree with you. I don't think that many use it to troll or be disrespectful. Ofc some of this will always exist, but in general it just means they disagree with you. Which should be fine. Haha is usually used when you actually find it funny. I've rarely seen it used in a bad manner.

The key to deal with these is to not think so much about them. It's just other peoples opinions or trolls. I use emojis if I agree with someone and use confused emoji if I really dislike what someone said. And sometimes it's a genuine confused reaction. If it's just opinions, I reply if I want to say my piece. And I think most forum users are like this. Some people here are more active with the confused reaction, but that's fine if that's what they want to do. Reactions doesn't mean as much as you think it does. These reactions affect you as much as you allow. 

This says it the best so far. The last sentence in particular. "These reactions affect you as much as you allow" is a simple truth.

[Sigmoid.7082]

32 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

They often downvote mere facts as well. Dumb.

The only facts I often seen downvoted are those where people are masquerading their opinions as such.

 

22 minutes ago, DexterousGecko.6328 said:

that's a great idea, they add nothing of substance to discussion.

 

I disagree here. To quote myself from ~3 weeks ago quoting myself from 3 months ago, since the opinion has not changed at all:

Quote

There are people who explaining why doesn't advance the conversation. Dropping the emoji allows contributing without often entering into brick wall back and forths. 

 

Imho more often than not, from observation over the years, people tend to be so entrenched in their positions in arguments that they believe their subjective opinions and objective fact. It's less "tell me why you disagree with me so we can have a healthy discussion about a topic" and more "tell me why you disagree with me so I can ignore what you say and tell you why you are wrong". 

 

I genuinely feel most of the time people don't come here to discuss topics but rather to start and then subsequently "win" arguments. 

 

Only think I would add on top of this now is the trend of branding anyone who disagrees with you a troll or a white night in order to somehow diminish their disagreement. Sometimes you're wrong, sometimes people simply disagree with you..it's just how it is and its weird people struggle with this.

 

[CrashTestAuto.9108]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Can it be definitively said that a specific instance of a specific emoji is intended to be an insult?  Unless the person who places it says so, how can one be completely certain?

This is a weirdly high bar to set.  Why would complete certainty for any given emoji be the requirement here?  The threshold would be closer to some confidence that at least one emoji was insulting for someone to be justified in thinking they had been insulted.  I'm not saying that person should let themselves be emotionally affected by it, but simply feeling insulted doesn't require omniscience to be justified.

 

 

On the main topic.  Yeah, the emojis are pretty toxic (and really obviously not used universally as a "disagree" button) , and a weirdly large proportion of the forum feel it's on the recipient to not care about the toxicity, rather than to try to address it.

The best argument I've seen in their favour is that without some way to vent frustration, the negativity winds up in verbal arguments, which are worse.

Personally I don't care much about them, but it's a shame that the current usage means there isn't an actually useful "disagree" function.  There isn't a very good way to engage with disagreement here because so many responses are either "Confused emote", "No (just that one word)", or "There is a search function on this forum".