It's been a while since a Smiley discussion

[Shelli Russell]

...and my members are asking for smileys on MySaline.com. 

I can put a few in my left column (shows on every page) but that takes space and is inconvenient for members to copy/paste.  How difficult would it be to add a smiley pop-up button in the wysiwyg/editor menu? There's already one in the chat feature.

C'mon, Ning Team. You can do this.

[Amanda Bears]

 Hey! If you have some time check out this site. You can get smileys! I have them on my site here. I hope this helps!

[Shelli Russell]

I've seen this "jquery" site mentioned over and over and it appears to be a commendable effort, but on the site itself, it says to use at my own risk. Not happy about that when it's got to be terribly easy for Ning to make it available to all networks.

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

I've been using JQuery's smileys for over a year now and have had no issues with them.  ANY code that you get from these discussions is "use at your own risk" because the creators of the code can't know for sure how it will act or conflict with any existing code you have.  

Try it, and if you start to see issues on your site that you didn't have before, you can always remove it. But I've had no problem with it at all. 

[Eric Suesz]

I know that those people who love smileys really love smileys. Those who hate them really do hate them. I will sound the word here, and if others here have opinions about smileys, let us know. 

[Lainie Takawe]

That would be fantastic Eric. We would love it! 

[Patrick Chappelle]

You can get smileys from TJ at Jquery Help. He's been around for a few years now, and has been offering smilies for just as long. The below is not one of his, by the way.

[TJ @ jQueryHelp]

Eric, buy my smileys for Ning!

j/k but seriously, I've had this code out there for free for years and last time I checked it was on over 200 Ning networks.  No bug reports in the last year or so, when installed correctly.  Of course it could break tomorrow, but that is the case with any mod.  Anyone can try the code, and if it works, great!  If it messes anything up, take it out and let me know.

Thanks and best wishes to all!

"TJ"

[Eric Suesz]

You're the best, TJ.

I think that the editor we use, TinyMCE, could support smileys. We'd need to dig into it to be sure, of course, but smileys aren't brain surgery. I guess the hard part is determining whether it's worth the investment and if everyone wants them. Some business-oriented networks probably bristle at the idea of smileys, but pure social networks love them. We can't make every detail about every feature optional or our NCs would be inundated too many checkboxes. But, I know this is something that has been requested over time by people like Lainie, for example. I'm personally okay with smileys. Fun!

No matter what, I would recommend that anyone and everyone try out TJ's smileys. 

[TJ @ jQueryHelp]

Thank you, Eric!

Yep, TinyMCE lets you add things to the editor with this line:

tinymce.activeEditor.execCommand('mceInsertContent',false,ThingToAdd);

But I understand all of your points; very well stated.  And yes, they can be fun!

Best wishes,

"TJ"

[Lainie Takawe]

Wow!  I got a mention in a post by Eric

A smiley can help convey a correction/point/message in a friendlier manner. There's been a few times when a member has taken offence when absolutely none had been intended. It took a few emails back and forth to get those involved happy again. But I've often wondered If we'd had a smiley popped in there somewhere  it may have been taken in a better light. Hope that makes sense but yep, they are definitely fun too. 

PS: I am too afraid to think about inserting codes for anything. Way to scary!!

 

[Kristy]

I second that. TJ is the best. What a nice guy! :)

[LadyHawk]

Your smilies are still on my network and we really like them!

Just a note...If you have your Text Editor set to "Default to HTML view" you have to click on the HTML on the editor bar to place the smileys where you want them.