The minus sign can mean all sorts of things. it doesn’t automatically mean ‘remove’
It can mean minus, negative, increment down, delete, remove, remove link. Anything subtractive.
Yes, technically you are unlinking the data, but the visual feedback is that you’re removing the data from that slot.
This is already quite complex, especially for new users, I think that we should avoid complex shapes for those basic actions, at least for now, i my opinion we should discuss this again ones the whole system of fake users and removing data get changed.
That was my point - the icons were designed to temporarily fix inconsistency without redesigning the GUI, which is a must and shall happened at some point.
Mind, that “X” icon is generally associated with deletion or closing, which is not the case. Besides the “Unlink data” may lead to a conclusion that it refers to “Linking from library”, so the name is bad as well. In case I’m wrong with the name, we should use a broken chain icon…
I still think a shield icon would be better for a fake user icon 
I’d honestly say switch it from an ‘x’ to a ‘-’ and you’re golden. ‘-’ is less ‘x’ if you were to scale the ‘delete-ness’ of icons.
Again, you can’t just remove fake users and have everything work all hunky-dory.
I know, but I honestly don’t think I would ever click on that icon if I first didn’t read the tooltip by accident.
It becomes clear only if you spend some time thinking about all the orphaned data thing (if you already know about it).
1 Like
@Antaioz
Honestly, I love the simplicity of “+” and “-” icons. I even leaved the “+”…
@a.monti
As for the “+” and “-” icons, let us leave the last word to @William. I just can’t agree to leave the Safe as an icon that is too visually aggressive and to leave the current “duplicate” pictogram as too complex and messy …
1 Like
Again, I would suggest an anchor. It can be drawn in a much simpler way 
, and would fit better with + and -
2 Likes
A lock could work too.
Ok, it looks good. However, we still need an opposing symbol, which will be equally simple and complementary in shape, style and symbolism.
Nope - te Lock is used to lock things. To make them uneditable for instance.
What about a drawing pin (you are essentially pinning the material in place)
Already occupated…
I do think that the “+, -, X” are a bit wonky…
“X” can really only be close, delete, remove
“-” can be delete, remove, lessen, lower, decrease, etc
So generally, as Antaioz said, “X” is a stronger delete than “-”. If we want to keep separate the ideas of unlinking datablocks versus removal, then we have them backward.
Plus and Minus should be used for linking and unlinking. The “minus” used this way also has the added benefit of signifying “subtracting” a user count.
Plus and Minus are things that have so many uses and should not be heavily decorated. The “X” though, can be optionally replaced in most cases. When used as “close” there are other icons to use. When used as delete you can use a trash can for example.
As for the “do not delete this” icon, the push pin still works best. The only reason we went down this path toward the safe is because there is another pin in the header of the UV editor. But you can have multiple pins just as you can have multiple pluses or “X” if they are legitimately operating on different things.
In the UV editor that other pin is for “display this image regardless of object selection”. Why not just look at that use instead? There could be a “pin image” icon. Or we could actually have a box that shows the name of the selected object and put the pin directly beside that. Click the pin and the name becomes static. The two together would tell the story, where the pin on its own now does not.
Surely a padlock must also be. Are the same icons not to be used to different purposes depending on where you are?
Paperclip?
Already occupated - the Attach icon in the File menu.
The pin/thumbstack suggests that You pin the data in this very place, while the F-User is a virtual idea. That’s why I assume it has to be something different. Safe is good, but looks horribly bad in the wild…
As an aside, it still takes me knowing it’s a pin and forcing myself to believe that, in order to not see a balloon. Or a needle. Still prefer Thumbtacks.
1 Like
Yes, although I love the new icons generally, I do think the old versions of the push pin looked better in both states. The new “unpinned” state icon still looks like it is sticking in something to me so already looks “pinned” to my eye. It just goes in deeper, which doesn’t have meaning to me.