(no subject)

[embers.livejournal.com]

Why do Russians type with weird parenthesis all over the place? (See this post).
I just don't get it!

Comments

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

it's a smiley.

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

it's a reduced smiley
:-)
:)
)

[embers.livejournal.com]

That's so weird! So it's just understood that this is what it means? Whyyyyyy?

[icedink.livejournal.com]

I guess... that makes sense... the mouth being that which is actually smiling.

[icedink.livejournal.com]

Now will someone please translate that oh-so-interesting conversation?

What on earth does с юпика/на юпике mean?

[oryx_and_crake]

юпик is short for юзерпик which as you could have guessed means userpick

[moon-aka-sun.livejournal.com]

user pic[ture]

[alten.livejournal.com]

There's another "set" of smileys that is normally used by Asians:

^__^ x__x o__O T__T -__- >__<

I had hard time figuring wth was that untill one of my Chinese friends finally told me that those are (normal smile) (frown) (surprised) (crying -- so not obvious) (sleepy) (to grimace).

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time (since 1983 afair) we had smileys - like ":-)", ":-(", etc. At that time we used them in Fido, not Internet, there wasn't any Internet, or it was too expensive, or something alike. When Internet came with all its staggering bells and whistles and a bit of usefulness, mostly GUI applications came into use. After some time people who made 'em realised that they can try to "parse" the text and replace those outdated signs with small pictures. This plague blessing got soon also into text processors, instant messengers, browsers, mail programs etc.

Some people started to feel a bit nostalgic about the times when you could type :-) and actually get what you typed, send it over the net and get the same picture at that end to be displayed. Some were just "smiley professionals" who could compose something like =>B-(((~~) easier and faster than you can kick you morning alarm. If the middle of such a construction in replaced by a creepy picture of arguable meaning, it ruis the whole thing.

People started to look for solutions: once a technology is implemented, there're always guys out there looking for the "off" switch, you know. Here's what they came up with:

1) Reverse the order. (-: )-: etc (can be quite confusing)
2) Introduce whitespaces. : ) : ( [looks like you lost your nose somewhere - and where? who nose!!]
3) Forget the whole thing and just use the brackets. ), )), ))) etc [only two emotions can be expressed, but with a quantitative twist]

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

I suggest you stop looking for the meaning of life - I've already found it, and it was so blooming ugly I hid it again ;)

[ob-ivan.livejournal.com]

)

Сами виноваты =)

[ex-eugzol340.livejournal.com]

these GUI application were developed not by Russians =)

[ex-eugzol340.livejournal.com]

I thought that the English has a strong taste for reducing every other word. I was wrong =)))

[oscar-6.livejournal.com]

Think Cheshire Cat.

[call-me-ammie.livejournal.com]

o__O how interesting!

[embers.livejournal.com]

Yes & no. I really despise internet shortening of words like "u" "r" & "c" because I think it is really ridiculous. However, we use contractions in our everyday speech & it's pretty necessary if you want to speak rapidly.

[embers.livejournal.com]

Somehow those make more sense to me. They look like faces, you know?

[winestone.livejournal.com]

cause we smile a lot too))

[clownshoes.livejournal.com]

More chins = fat.

[lilavati220.livejournal.com]

aka, the Gogol approach...

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

Just a Carroll's Smile Without A Cat ;-)