See, I haven't been in SGA fandom long enough to know the joke/story/line that spurred Mary's icon. But John's hair just looks like it would be smart and sentient and all diva. It's got its own attitude, rakish and rebelliously perfect that it is. So it's possible that her icon has no other meaning other than her looking at his hair and coming to the same conclusion I did. But yeah, it did take a little work and a thought process that's not necessarily natural to any viewer. But it's possible, which it isn't with tiny text.
I don't think it's any worse than icons with a lot of readable text that has no meaning whatsoever to anybody who's not in on the joke or the fandom or even worse, someone who's in on the fandom but isn't getting the joke because it's a private one.
No, I'm not a fan of private jokes either. But icons are rarely that. And people outside a fandom aren't going to get icons related to it, but then, those probably aren't the poster's target audience with the icon either.
It's usually also the same text I already have in the icon somewhere only smaller
Miranda uses lines from literature or lyrics relevant to add to the meaning of the icon, but she says you two fall into a minority. But either way, it's an unknowable other that has meaning beyong a filter or brush that's inaccessible. There's no "ooh, pretty" attached to tiny text in my mind. It's just making me squint and eventually roll my eyes and move on. I get that I'm not supposed to put in that effort, but it's WORDS and icons MEAN things and if I'm not getting it, there's all this pondering of what I could be missing.
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I don't think it's any worse than icons with a lot of readable text that has no meaning whatsoever to anybody who's not in on the joke or the fandom or even worse, someone who's in on the fandom but isn't getting the joke because it's a private one.
No, I'm not a fan of private jokes either. But icons are rarely that. And people outside a fandom aren't going to get icons related to it, but then, those probably aren't the poster's target audience with the icon either.
It's usually also the same text I already have in the icon somewhere only smaller
Miranda uses lines from literature or lyrics relevant to add to the meaning of the icon, but she says you two fall into a minority. But either way, it's an unknowable other that has meaning beyong a filter or brush that's inaccessible. There's no "ooh, pretty" attached to tiny text in my mind. It's just making me squint and eventually roll my eyes and move on. I get that I'm not supposed to put in that effort, but it's WORDS and icons MEAN things and if I'm not getting it, there's all this pondering of what I could be missing.