Among other projects, I've been working on some custom forum software. I'm aware that there are plenty of existing packages out there I could potentially use, but I don't like any of them, so I'm trying to write something following a few guidelines:
- The content comes first
- No 'feature bloat'; if I don't need it it shouldn't be there
- Validating XHTML/CSS that works reliably on major browsers
- Avoid tables for layout if possible
- Clean markup and code
- Must load quickly, even (especially?) on slow connections

Anyways, more on that at a later stage I'm sure. For now, in order to take a bit of a break from it but still spend time working on something that will contribute, I've started creating a small set of basic emoticons to be used with it. I only want a few (about 10) covering what is commonly used in line with my 'no bloat' guideline and so as not to detract from actual content, and my art isn't great, but thus far I have:


I've managed to get the filesizes nice and small, and I think I've got them looking pretty decent, if pretty basic. I've also done some of them in green, but I think I prefer the blue, and it'll certainly fit into the intended site design better unless things change.

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Check out Lugaru, by Wolfire Software. They're currently looking for programmers to help with a sequel!