Topic "icons" - what for?

[Daniel Bela]

Dear all,

obviously, when starting a new topic, the forum lets you choose an icon for the topic.

Is there any function of these icons intended, besides being colorful? Should this in the future become categories of topics? Or am I just missing something?

Regards
Bela

[Nick Cox]

Use of emoticons (smileys) is entirely a matter of personal taste (or, some might argue, lack of it).

[Philip Jones]

Best response in (new) Statalist so far!

[Daniel Bela]

Dear Nick,

Use of emoticons (smileys) is entirely a matter of personal taste (or, some might argue, lack of it).

I was not talking of "regular" emoticons, but of the icons one can pin on a (new) topic; like the smiley face with sunglasses on this topic.
Probably, your answer is the same for these. I agree that their use should be a matter of personal taste (not, actually, mine), unless they (by convention) are indicating some kind of categorical system for posts (about which I was wondering).

Thanks
Bela

[Nick Cox]

I think this won't fly. I guess we would all like some system that segregates posts interesting or useful to us from the others, but using informative words in titles beats any system based on icons, so far as icon imagine any way.