12 replies to this topic

[jaydfox]

This is a suggestion I've been meaning to make for a long time: ImmInst needs "air quotes". You know, the cheesy sarcastic quotes you put around things to be [airquote] ironic [/airquote].

Well, given the relative lull in traffic due to the current DoS attacks, I found the time to put in the new emoticons myself.

I searched the internet high and low for air quotes. You'd think I wouldn't be the first to think of this, right?

Yet I couldn't find any animated airquotes. In fact, I couldn't find any decent static air quotes. My main criterion was that the quotes be small enough that they don't add vertical space to a line of text. So I made some air quotes from scratch, using the capital letters such as E and L as a guide. I couldn't find a decent gif animating software package for free, so unfortunately there's no transparency. But I at least made the background color the same pale blue that is used behind the text of posts (but not in quotes).

My main concern is that the air quotes might not be synchronized if the two gifs are loaded at different times by a user's browser. Oh well, I can't win them all.

The other main drawback is that the quotes aren't connected to a word, so they could end up on the next line (or vice versa, an opening air quote might be at the end of a line, with the quoted text on the next line). It's not a perfect system, so it's mainly a test for now.

Edit: added "vertical" to space.

Edited by jaydfox, 20 March 2006 - 12:52 PM.

[DJS]

[airquote] strategery [/airquote]

I like them Jay, I like them a lot. [8)]

[DJS]

LOL. Jay, I think we can safely say we are now one step closer to immortality.

"Air quotes, air quotes, my kingdom for a set of air quotes." [lol]

[lunarsolarpower]

They are certainly [airquote] entertaining [/airquote] .

I did notice that when they first loaded their timing was slightly off - which didn't seem that annoying - but after they are in cache, they are synchronized perfectly.

Also if you can find a way to eliminate the necessity of spaces on either side of them, that will allow them to stick to the words I think.

[jaydfox]

Also if you can find a way to eliminate the necessity of spaces on either side of them, that will allow them to stick to the words I think.

I think getting them to stick will requre making a new set of bbcode (they are currentle emoticons), with the corresponding html code. In other words, a hack to the PHP code. It shouldn't be difficult, just time consuming, as I haven't tried hacking the codebase before, so I wouldn't really even know where to get started.

[jaydfox]

Once we upgrade the site, I'll be able to add the new BBcode to make these airquotes stick to words. I've already tested it on the new version of Invision, and I'm sure it'll work on the new version of vBulletin, so whichever we upgrade to, we'll be able to put in proper air quotes. ImmInst deserves no less.

[Live Forever]

Once we upgrade the site, I'll be able to add the new BBcode to make these airquotes stick to words. I've already tested it on the new version of Invision, and I'm sure it'll work on the new version of vBulletin, so whichever we upgrade to, we'll be able to put in proper air quotes. ImmInst deserves no less.

[thumb]

[jaydfox]

BTW, when you use the airquote emoticons, try to use them as if they were valid BBcode, other than the spaces of course.

Good:
LifeMirage misrepresented himself as a [airquote] doctor [/airquote] .
Disregarding anything said by leadership doesn't automatically make you a [airquote] critical thinker [/airquote] .

Bad:
Hey, these airquotes are cool. Look at this one: [airquote] . Heh, isn't that funny. And the other one is pretty funny too: [/airquote] .
Hey, can someone give me a hand here? - [airquote] - Hey, thanks.

The above will translate into this after the upgrade:

Good:
LifeMirage misrepresented himself as a doctor.
Disregarding anything said by leadership doesn't automatically make you a critical thinker.

Bad:
Hey, these airquotes are cool. Look at this one: . Heh, isn't that funny. And the other one is pretty funny too:.
Hey, can someone give me a hand here? - [airquote] - Hey, thanks.

Notice that I just collapsed a space inside the quote (if it exists), and the space after the closing quote if it's followed by punctuation. This should correctly fix 90% or more of the airquotes, once the airquotes become full-fledged bbcode.

[Kalepha]

Jay D. Fox is the inventor of the [airquote] animated air quote emoticon [/airquote].

I figure that ought to be something documented that does not yet seem to be. One can imagine that this emoticon will be popular once it occurs to people.

[jaydfox]

This occurred to me six months ago at least, and I started working on it but didn't have time. I lost that work and had to start from scratch.

I've seen at least one static air quote emoticon, and it was both hands together in one image. Of all places, it was on a Christian blog, IIRC.

But to my knowledge, this is the first animated set of airquote emoticons.

[Kalepha]

In this case, I allowed Google to be the expanse of my knowledge, while assuming that if they (i.e., the animated ones) had been invented somewhere else, they would also be referred to by the words we're using.

Incidentally, as I look back on my diction, I didn't mean that the animated air quotes would be reinvented by people on a large scale, rather that when people see them, they will be one of those "Wow neat! Why didn't I think of that?" phenomena, and then they will take them for granted.

[jaydfox]

Hey, I just think it's neat that I invented something, however insignificant, that might actually catch on. People use real quotes all the time when they really mean the sarcastic air quotes (which, incidentally, some people think are destroying our ability to use irony in a sophisticated manner, and I somewhat agree, which made me hesitant to install them, but the response so far has been positive, so I guess we don't have many snobs among us).

[jaydfox]

Hey, I just found the old airquote gifs I had been working on last year. This isn't my work, it's half of an image file I found on some Christian blog last year. The original image (which I don't have) was basically two hands, right next to each other, so picture this image combined with a mirror-image of itself.

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