I've been looking into this issue, since I've seen several people mention it. Yeah, I think Lithium's smilies are less than hip too, so I asked the Lithium folks about that a while back and was told that they couldn't use vB smilies due to copyright issues. Last night, I thought maybe there was a way we could license the vB smilies, but when I researched it, the answer was no - they won't license, and due to their copyright, you can't use vB smilies in any other software.
However, there does appear to be the possibility of other smilies that could be licensed. I've sent a note to Lithium asking if it is possible to host alternative smilies. If so, and if I can find a package that is better than what we have (and closer to what we used to have), and can arrange it, we'll get them for you guys. I can't make any promises, but I'm definitely looking into it.
If anyone has any alternative emoticon suggestions (that are not vB and that we can actually license or use legally), please let me know.
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"It shouldn't be expected that people are necessarily doing what they appear to be doing on records."
- Sir George Martin,
All You Need Is Ears
"The music business will be revitalized by musicians, not the labels or Live Nation. When the musicians decide to put music first, instead of money, the public will flock to the fruits and the scene will be healthy again."
- Bob Lefsetz,
The Lefsetz Letter
:facepalm:. Try http://simplesmileys.org/ or AFAIK the smilies sets for the Simple Machines Forums are all public domain.
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