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This post is essentially the same request as this answer on the New Site Design post (requesting the E icon instead of bookmark), but for the settings of
(a) the Network Profile Accounts and Sites lists, which currently show this for ELL:

(b) the browser favicons, currently: & on meta

(c) the Super-Collider, Inbox, and Achievements dialog drop-downs. (Part of large sprite images, not shown.)

When I see the bookmark iconography, I think it belongs to a Books.SE or something like that, not ELL.

I put it as a separate question on meta per instructions in the announcement "question." Note: Those are live image links, so they'll change if this becomes status-completed.

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  • 1
    Related.
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 4, 2016 at 16:28
  • I have to confess, I actually like the orange thingy by itself as an icon. Am I the only one? :-)
    – user230
    Mar 5, 2016 at 3:06
  • @snailboat: Apparently Catija also prefers it. Mar 5, 2016 at 3:15
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    I like it as an icon, but for a Books or Literature (or maybe Renaissance Festival) SE site, not ELL.
    – WBT
    Mar 5, 2016 at 3:50
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    @snailboat - I'm wondering what a fan of the bookmark might think of my latest proposal.
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 5, 2016 at 10:18

2 Answers 2

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Now that a couple ELLers have professed their appreciation for the bookmark, I had another thought. What if we "embroidered" our E on the bookmark? It might look something like one of these:

enter image description here or enter image description here or enter image description here

This might appease those who think the current favicon is too simple, yet not disappoint those who are starting to like the bookmark.

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    Ooh, this is neat!
    – Catija
    Mar 5, 2016 at 14:01
  • I agree with Catija :-)
    – user230
    Mar 5, 2016 at 16:53
  • This is an improvement, but why do we have the bookmark anyway? At least of the people I know, the subset who are learning English as a second language does not overlap a whole lot with those who read a lot of books (esp. English books); any relationship seems to be inverse.
    – WBT
    Mar 5, 2016 at 17:55
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    @WBT - In one sense, I can relate to your confusion. (I mean, if there's one book that doesn't need a bookmark, that would be a dictionary – we don't exactly read them cover-to-cover.) However, I'm trying not to overthink it. Evidently, Stéphane thought the "E-books" needed a little flair, and (after a few revisions) I thought the bookmark looked just fine. That said, I was a little surprised when the bookmark was promoted from nifty accent to standalone icon.
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 5, 2016 at 18:59
  • I have dictionaries with ribbons sewn into the binding to serve as bookmarks. It's actually kind of nice, because you can easily open the dictionary to the last thing you looked up :-) I took a picture of a dictionary I have with a ribbon: i.stack.imgur.com/KKz9h.jpg
    – user230
    Mar 5, 2016 at 20:39
  • @snail - I would've taken your word for it, but that picture is a nice touch! Thanks for correcting me yet again :-)
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 6, 2016 at 0:04
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    I'm sorry, I wasn't really trying to correct you, I just thought I'd chime in and say there really are dictionaries with bookmarks like in the icon. (I love dictionaries and usually take every excuse I can to talk about them . . . ) They don't seem to be very common, though. I spent a little while today looking through English dictionaries, and I couldn't find a single one with a bookmark sewn in.
    – user230
    Mar 6, 2016 at 0:32
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    I like this idea! It's a compromise, and it's more our-own than just the bookmark by itself. Also I kind of like the meta. (E books with a bookmark with E books... ad infinitum ;))
    – WendiKidd
    Mar 6, 2016 at 6:47
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    @snailboat I had a giant (5-inch) English dictionary as a kid that did... this Collins one seems to have one, even if it's not sticking out in this image.
    – Catija
    Mar 6, 2016 at 15:44
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When the site went live, there was a bit of consternation about the little favicon.

One prevailing sentiment was, "We need to at least make the bookmark bigger, but it would be even better if we could use the E, rather than just the bookmark."

I didn't really detect much support for the first option, but there were plenty of hints dropped by the rest of the community toward the second.

  • In his highly upvoted question, Nathan Tuggy said, "The other [option] would be to use the entire E/bookmark ... If possible, I'd prefer this choice, I think."

  • In an answer to the New Site Design! post, WendiKidd ♦ remarked, "Either the orange bookmark only, without the circle, or the E dictionary with the orange bookmark (I support the second option, but the first would also be an improvement)."

  • In a couple comments on Nathan's question, Lucky opined, "What's a bookmark without a book? It doesn't look good on its own. It is quite plain compared to other SE websites' logos. The rest of the design is great, but the icons with the books would really be a cherry on the cake."

  • In my answer to the New Site Design! meta question, I said, "It would be nice if that E were incorporated as the tiny symbol used in the SE pulldown." As of this writing, that answer has 27 upvotes and 0 downvotes.

I've yet to find even a stray comment that conveys the sentiment, "I think those little bookmarks look great by themselves! Besides, the E would be too small." (However, if people do feel that way, this would be a good place to make their opinion known.)

I like what Nathan said in his question:

I double-checked, and the favicon didn't make it into the design preview, or I would (hopefully) have commented on this earlier.

I think much of the community feels this same way: we had our chance to weigh in on the overall design, but that lone bookmark caught us by surprise. I'm glad it's been enlarged to a more recognizable form, but I still sense this is something that's widely regarded as thrust upon the community with little grass roots support.

I'm hoping there's one more design iteration yet to come.

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    I like the bookmark... and I don't particularly like the E... and to flesh this out... the E with or without the bookmark looks fine when it's huge... over 100 px... but when it's teeny, like in the dropdown size... it doesn't look good at all... which is why I think they went with the bookmark only. It's too busy and too difficult to see what it is.
    – Catija
    Mar 4, 2016 at 22:46
  • This is an example of the teeny image that I'm not a fan of: i.stack.imgur.com/dDKJt.png
    – Catija
    Mar 4, 2016 at 22:52
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    @Catija - Thanks for chiming in. You might be right. (If so, I wish the design team had been a bit more open in explaining their rationale. The silence left me wondering.) Also, I'm glad at least one ELLer is happy with the bookmark – there's comfort in that.
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 4, 2016 at 23:08
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    @Catija: I'm reasonably sure a skilled pixel artist could do a lot better with that basic idea than my crude hack job, so don't judge the upper end of the potential by that sample. Pixel art is pretty crazy sometimes. And while the dictionary-E-bookmark combination is probably one of the more sophisticated favicons to pack into that space, the bookmark by itself is one of the five least visually complicated favicons on the network. (Three colors. Two adjacent polygons. That's it.) We don't really need to restrict ourselves to that level. Mar 4, 2016 at 23:28
  • @NathanTuggy Sure... I just find the E by itself or with the bookmark kind of boring. It's a lot of empty space. In the site logo with the site name it looks good... but alone it's sort of sad.
    – Catija
    Mar 4, 2016 at 23:33
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    @Catija I prefer the E in the example you linked to, though I might try increasing line weight and consider cutting the little bookmark from it.
    – WBT
    Mar 5, 2016 at 3:53
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    @Cat - in the site logo with the site name it looks good... but alone it's sort of sad and boring. Ironically, that's the same way I feel about the bookmark. The E may not be "exciting," but at least it has a double meaning. It reminds me of a letter on a baseball cap. More importantly, though, in the original site design, I think we were led to believe that the E was going to be our identity, so to speak. The bookmark seems to have come along as an afterthought.
    – J.R. Mod
    Mar 5, 2016 at 9:19
  • Something weird is happening
    – Catija
    Mar 5, 2016 at 15:20

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