Passive Aggressive Emoji's plaguing the forums

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

It can get pretty annoying, imo. You say something as simple as "Guild Wars 2 is a game" and first notification you get is a confused reaction to the comment.

I wish there was a way of filtering which reactions are notified, for example I would choose to be notified about the "Thanks" one only.

 

[Draygo.9473]

As long as there is more than one emote option, there will always be at least one of them used passive-aggressively. 

 

This is a fine thing, someone disliking something doesnt mean its toxic. Not every idea you post or comment you write is a good one. 

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Sigmoid.7082 said:

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

Yes, because technical facts posted in the Technical Support subforum are a matter of opinion. 😂

[Kozumi.5816]

I just assume all the confused faces are people who can't comprehend basic english.

[Holmindeboks.3490]

yes those emoticons can make the situation even more worse then it is, or you have a problem, or you get frustration of something.
and then you come here is those ppl just laugh at it.

used google translate because short in time for now. 

this is nothing but making things worse, we call this bullying, indirectly it is just making someone's life miserable. but they are not words. but those emoticons do the same but with a detour, at least that's how I see it.

[mythical.6315]

1 minute ago, Holmindeboks.3490 said:

 

yes those emoticons can make the situation even more worse then it is, or you have a problem, or you get frustration of something.
and then you come here is those ppl just laugh at it.

used google translate because short in time for now. 

this is nothing but making things worse, we call this bullying, indirectly it is just making someone's life miserable. but they are not words. but those emoticons do the same but with a detour, at least that's how I see it.

 

So disagreeing with you is the equivalent of bullying?

[DexterousGecko.6328]

13 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

So disagreeing with you is the equivalent of bullying?

I'm not sure if the strawman was intentional or not, but the other poster was obviously implying the confused emojis aren't being used as simply a "I disagree" button, but rather as a passive aggressive mocking button. Which then makes the "bullying" comment make more sense. Someone says something on the forums, everyone puts confused emojis to mock them, that could be considered bullying.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

The only real problem with the reactions down \/ There \/ is that they are anonymous, which is what lets people troll freely.

The 'haha', 'sad', and 'confused' reactions can weird connotations on these forums. Sometimes they really are what they are. I for one put some sort of humor in at least half my posts, even the serious ones about balance issues so I sometimes put a disclaimer at the bottom that all laugh reactions will automatically be considered agreement with me.

But in general, there are people who will just put a confused reaction as a downvote. Fortunately, unlike Reddit, you can't force a post to become hidden by bombarding it with negative reactions from several alt accounts.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Lan Deathrider.5910
Fixed an unfortunate typo

[mythical.6315]

23 minutes ago, DexterousGecko.6328 said:

I'm not sure if the strawman was intentional or not, but the other poster was obviously implying the confused emojis aren't being used as simply a "I disagree" button, but rather as a passive aggressive mocking button. Which then makes the "bullying" comment make more sense. Someone says something on the forums, everyone puts confused emojis to mock them, that could be considered bullying.

Confused emojis are being used to mean that someone disagrees with the post. It’s being interpreted as “mocking” is occurring solely within the offended person’s own head.  Disagreeing is not mocking. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Silent.6137]

16 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

Confused emojis are being used to mean that someone disagrees with the post.

One of the problems is that it's not being used just for that, as has been discussed on other threads. I have no issue with others disagreeing with my posts since everyone has their own viewpoints. But you do get spammed with them by certain individuals regardless of what you wrote.

I just use Ublock so I never see them and disable notifications. Won't know if anyone agree or disagree with me unless they bother to quote me. Better that way.

[mythical.6315]

2 hours ago, Silent.6137 said:

One of the problems is that it's not being used just for that, as has been discussed on other threads. I have no issue with others disagreeing with my posts since everyone has their own viewpoints. But you do get spammed with them by certain individuals regardless of what you wrote.

I just use Ublock so I never see them and disable notifications. Won't know if anyone agree or disagree with me unless they bother to quote me. Better that way.

But you have no way of knowing the intent of the person who used the emoji.  The consensus is that it’s being used to disagree with a post.  Could someone use it for a different intent?  Sure, but there’s no way for us to really know that by simply looking at the emoji.

What do you mean by spamming?  Them disagreeing with your posts in a quick succession?

Edited December 14, 2022 by mythical.6315
Typo

[Silent.6137]

18 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

But you have no way of know the intent of the person who used the emoji.

What do you mean by spamming?  Them disagreeing with your posts in a quick succession?

Yes, spamming as in suddenly getting lots of Confused emojis notifications within a minute in a multi pages thread. Virtually impossible to read through the back and forth debates within that short amount of time. And this is done during slow periods on the forum, or after the thread has not had any replies for quite a few hours or for several days. I sometimes just left this website open on my 2nd monitor while doing stuffs on my main.

Another thread where this was discussed and my response there:

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Silent.6137

[Ashen.2907]

Isnt there an option to render them invisible, or something of the sort, for you?

[Silent.6137]

4 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Isnt there an option to render them invisible, or something of the sort, for you?

You'll still see them even if you turned off notifications.

But you can get rid of them completely:

Turn on uBlock. Right-click on the emoji button and choose Block element. In the pop-up window, change Like to * so it reads "||content.invisioncic.com/a311129/reactions/react_*.png". Then click Create.

[mythical.6315]

15 minutes ago, Silent.6137 said:

Yes, spamming as in suddenly getting lots of Confused emojis notifications within a minute in a multi pages thread. Virtually impossible to read through the back and forth debates within that short amount of time. And this is done during slow periods on the forum, or after the thread has not had any replies for quite a few hours or for several days. I sometimes just left this website open on my 2nd monitor while doing stuffs on my main.

Another thread where this was discussed and my response there:

 

I didn’t know it was possible to spam someone with notifications. I agree that spamming them would be annoying but I don’t believe that it’s very widespread otherwise we’d see more complaints about it. 

In the end the best option is to use a 3rd party tool to remove emojis or to remove notifications altogether. It would have been nice to have notification for post replies and reactions separate, but unfortunately they don’t seem to want to do that at this time. 
 

edit: Actually, the 3rd party option to hide the emojis probably wouldn’t resolve the notification spam. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:47 AM, 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?

It's a system created to encourage a echo chamber so people can cast out others who is disturbing their lotus eating delusions.

You can only look at reddit to see what kind of effect it has.

[DexterousGecko.6328]

18 minutes ago, Silent.6137 said:

You'll still see them even if you turned off notifications.

But you can get rid of them completely:

Turn on uBlock. Right-click on the emoji button and choose Block element. In the pop-up window, change Like to * so it reads "||content.invisioncic.com/a311129/reactions/react_*.png". Then click Create.

I'd give an agree emoji if I could see them anymore. This is the best way to deal with it. You see the posts and judge them by what they're saying, not simply the amount of confused emojis they have by them.

[Cuks.8241]

If I feel someone is plain wrong, I disagree with him, dislike the post or am just confused by the post and everything I want to write has been already posted by others, I'll click a confused emoji. I really dont see how I could convey insults or mocking through emoji though. If I wanted to do that I would iterate it in words.

I think emojis are a good addition. I dont mind if my post gets a bunch of confused ones, I dont expect everyone to agree with me and I am not always right or represent ideas majority likes and that is fine. I wouldnt mind if confused emoji would be replaced by dislike or disagree though, it would be clearer.

There are users that I often disagree with and have probably given them a good amount of confused emojis. But that doesnt mean I don't respect them or their opinions and that I have anything personal against them.. If they write a good post I might even give a thanks trophy even if I disagree with them. 

[disco.9302]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:47 AM, 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?

how hard can it be to understand? this topic comes up every week and the answer is the same.

confused = negative reaction; like when you see someone's post and think what kind of sub-human wrote this garbage? (it's so bad, it's confusing how anyone with half a brain would put this idea on the forum)

[Ashen.2907]

So it is acceptable to express oneself using improper grammar, spelling, text formatting, and so on but it is toxic, passive aggressive, or otherwise poor form and abusive to express one's opinion with a graphic icon?

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Gehenna.3625]

3 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

So it is acceptable to express oneself using improper grammar, spelling, text formatting, and so on but it is toxic, passive aggressive, or otherwise poor form and abusive to express one's opinion with a graphic icon?

 

This comparison makes zero sense. Bad grammar or spelling, especially on an international forum isn't in the same ball park as toxic, abusive language and being passive aggressive, though I'm not saying these emoticons are toxic. Perhaps a little passive aggressive.

At the same time, though I do feel that it's cowardly to hide behind an icon, I think I get why Anet do it. Consider this: what if people couldn't express themselves through an icon? What if indeed they would post a message...what would those messages add to the discussion and how constructive would they be? I think that there would be a lot more flame wars without these graphic icons as you call them.

So, in the end, I'm fine with these emoticons or whatever they're called, simply because the alternative is much worse.

[Ashen.2907]

42 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

isn't in the same ball park as toxic, abusive language 

I made no such claim.

I do think that essentially stating that it is ok for him to post however he wants in terms of conscious presentation of self expression (his post is clearly a matter of affectation, not an ESL issue) but it isnt ok for others to do the same (as the OP does) is odd (to put it nicely).

Edited December 14, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Gehenna.3625]

Just now, Ashen.2907 said:

I made no such claim.

I do think that, as the OP does, essentially stating that it is ok for him to post however he wants in terms of conscious presentation of self expression (his post is clearly a matter of affectation, not an ESL issue) but it isnt ok for others to do the same is odd (to put it nicely).

Ahh, I see I misinterpreted what you said. My bad. 

[Veprovina.4876]

Some people are actually confused, some people target you with their friends to "downvote bomb" the post (i've seen it happen) and continue to "bomb" your every post in a particular thread (people can be so petty). Some people disagree with your post and use the confused emoji as a downvote, but not in a spiteful manner, and some people "meme" and confused emoji every post...

 

It is what it is... Take that how you will. It doesn't really matter much.

[roederich.2716]

I dont mind these smileys. There are never enough people to use them to say that you got representative feedback.

im more concerned about people who getting told another persons opinion and quickly call it passive-aggressive just to distinguish the other person within the conversation.

if another person got a different view on things it might appear cause this person knows something you dont so one can ask questions or just say thanks for the new information so you can review your own opinion on correctness.

but these „you are passive-aggressive“ „toxic masculine“ and whatever new age terms to just silence the opposite opinion need to go as this silencing will lead to real aggression what lead to violence. Human history shows this. One cannot eat as much as one wants to puke so be careful how you design a conversation with others as just because someone has a different opinion doesnt mean you are directly a victim…