@sanspoint Agreed! Also, try not to pick "Active Dislike" by default, as so many seem to do.

@sanspoint YES!

@sanspoint i really like this philosophy.

when other people enjoy something and i don't, i've always tried to find a way to at least understand what it is they enjoy about that thing.

i think your fewer active dislikes is a nice addition.

@sanspoint I really really like this observation. I've thinking about it a lot. Could the statuses be represented by emoji? 😀😕😣😐 (Ironically, I actively disliked emojis in the beginning, and gradually shifted to really liking them.)

@macgenie I find it can be very hard to distinguish between emoji, especially on a phone. If only there were some way we could expand them out into multiple characters. I don't know, some sort of... word kinda thing? 😀

@devilgate I have to agree. I too find it hard to distinguish between emoji.

@bradenslen @devilgate ambivalent @macgenie 🙃😶

@macgenie I agree with the principle. The implementation is key, though. Symbols (emojis or others) are fine as long as their meaning is clear and unambiguous. That's hard, though.

@cn @devilsgate @macgenie Words, the English laguage is far more powerful in conveying meaning than a symbol. Just my 2 cents. :)

@macgenie It’s interesting thinking about emotions and how we feel about a thing. I currently rate my mood once a day in Exist, but I’ve been thinking about tracking this on my website 3x a day, and using emoji to quantify that. I do feel like there is something to be said for having a gradient of 3-5 emojis that can express how you feel about something (whether about a post or about your day)

@bradenslen apparently 0.02 GBP according to a quick check of exchange rate :o)

@sanspoint What’s the meaningful difference between “passive dislike” and having no opinion?

@bradenslen @devilgate @macgenie Words are also symbols whose meaning can vary between persons.

@sanspoint Would you go see La Bohemé with your partner or a friend? It’s interesting that your example of something you’re neutral about is something you haven’t seen. It seems to imply that if we know or experience something, we must form an opinion about it, a relationship with it. 🤔

@justinhudgins @devilgate @macgenie True enough. And I really don't feel passionatly one way or another. Two thoughts, off the top of my head, come to mind: 1. Usability. "Don't make me think." Am I going to have to hunt up the MB emoji reference page from the wiki to look it up? 2. Jargon, every group has it's jargon (medical, SEO's, etc.) while jargon includes people within the trade, it also excludes those who are not. Emoji may be tiptoeing into MB jargon just a little. Just thoughts, I will adapt either way.

@bradenslen All fair and good points. But I think that @macgenie was maybe taking more about UI in general, as opposed to mb in particular. But I could be wrong. Anyway, everything is jargon to a degree, it’s just a matter of how big a group is and how deep the jargon has penetrated. Nothing about $ intrinsically means money, but it’s part of the set of symbols we all use. I’m confident that, given how much thought went into developing mb in the first place, that @manton and @macgenie can come up with a very usable, easy to understand set of symbols, should they decide to take the design in that direction. Btw I’m enjoying the conversation! It’s an important one to have on a nascent platform. 😊

@justinhudgins I have absolute faith in @manton and @macgenie they have thought about this stuff way way deeper than I ever will. I enjoyed discussing it.

@sanspoint I don't remember opera ever being discussed on my Twitter timeline. I am an avid opera goer. My favorite is Lucia di Lammermoor. If we keep this up, we are going to need an emojitag.

@sanspoint Nice! I was just there in December to see Norma. I also saw La Boheme there ages ago with my father, which was a special occasion, and therefore that opera has a special place in my heart. My best friend lives 2 blocks away, and we always go to the opera wherever we travel.

@sanspoint My point wasn’t that you have to experience something to have an opinion, but more that anything we experience does result in an opinion. Which I suppose is more of an observation. But I think it’s one that might be worth thinking about. The point of my question, though, is that I’m not sure there are any reactions besides desire, rejection, and neutrality. You might desire something more or less, reject it more or less, but I’m not sure there’s any meaningful difference between disliking something very actively or passively.

@macgenie Would you pick this one? Or something else maybe. 🎭

@Burk It’s difficult. That one could be theater. I wish there was an emoji of a person singing.

@Burk (Though I don’t think there is a burning need for an opera emojitag yet!)

@macgenie hehe maybe not. Just want to be ready! 😀

@macgenie Probably not. Best to stick it with music in general, I reckon. Imagine if all the various genres had their own emojis. People would potentially miss out on being introduced to new, different stuff. Hmm, cunning plan to get metalheads listening to opera... 😈

@vanessa 🤘🏼😈 🎸🎶 🙉

@macgenie emojipedia.org/male-sing... or emojipedia.org/female-si... perhaps???

@eli LOL. I love David Bowie. Not exactly opera, though.

@vanessa Yes! I love opera and heavy metal. 🎩 🎸

@macgenie Queen has an album … :o) / @eli

@macgenie Me, too. Opera, particularly when Jonas Kaufmann is singing (sigh). I tend to like symphonic/Scandi metal rather than really heavy stuff. Gotta love Manowar's version of Nessun Dorma though!

@cn 👍

@vanessa Are you saying there are metal heads that don’t listen to opera? Madness I tell you! 🤘

@vanessa possible I’m the primate

@furstenberg Possibly not. Although a good friend of mine doesn't really like classical music, but loves his metal. So maybe it does happen occasionally.

@cn Sigh... There's no hope for some people. 😇

@vanessa I did Specsavers’ online hearing thing, and found I’ve got some herring loss

The high–pitched squiggle in From Russia with Love is harder to discern these days…

@vanessa I’m sure it happens often. :-)

But most of my friends that are into metal tend to like classical music as well.

@furstenberg @vanessa I'm pretty sure Mozart is metal. :)

@furstenberg It is a slightly odd combination, but agreed, it often happens. Like how fairly often maths and music go together.

@vanessa I like a. Aroety of music (a variety of music); but not all things equally, English folk is best left to the aficionados.

@jack @vanessa For sure!

So much of the classic hard rock and heavy metal are influenced by classical music.

@cn Ha ha. I like English folk, too, though I prefer Celtic. I think only some of the hard dance music and very free jazz aren't my bag.

@vanessa Celtic has the edge; American folk is often good, although known by other names…

@furstenberg @jack Definitely. I remember when a British orchestra brought out the Classic Rock albums. I even have a CD called Heavy Classix. Yes, the musical structure in metal is often quite complex, with classical & folk influences. Oh I loved studying music.

@cn Yup. I like me a bit of bluegrass, I have to admit. Though my mandolin-playing isn't quite good enough to play along. Yet.

@sanspoint Sure, a significant difference in activity, but in terms of our relationship with the world around us and the base of that emotion, I’m not sure it’s a significant difference. It still comes from the same base reaction of rejection, it’s just a question of degree. Why not also have “Active Like” and “Passive Like”? Or different shades of neutral?

@justinhudgins @sanspoint i read the post a bit less literally, i think.

i LIKE chocolate chip cookies a lot. even if they're not perfect, i'd probably be happy to eat them.

i DISLIKE banana creme pie immensely. even made by a great chef … yah … nope. not for me.

i DON'T HAVE A STRONG OPINION on cauliflower. it's not good or bad. it's just what it is. i'm content never having an opinion about it, even though i eat it often.

i read the original post to mean: maybe most things should be in the cauliflower category. fewer strong opinions. save LIKE and DISLIKE for stuff that really deserves it.

probably mostly i just invented that out of thin air. but it resonated with me. :-)

@isaiah @sanspoint I think that was the original spirit of the post, but I think I’d go a bit further than his point and say that we‘d be better off just not being emotionally invested in as many things. “Passive dislike” is still an emotional investment in something. But maybe I’m also projecting onto the original post a bit much. 🤔

@vanessa c/o the bird network: @qikipedia: Word of the day: SCAPABOBIDIDDYWIDDILYDOOBAPBAPAPHOBIA - the fear of freestyle jazz.

@cn Very, very good. 😂