5 ms·
Interesting thing to note is that before Fahlman suggested ":-)" symbol, Leonard Hamey suggested "{#}" (see 17-Sep-82 17:42 post). After that, someone suggested
by ZeljkoS 10y ago
Interesting thing to note is that before Fahlman suggested ":-)" symbol, Leonard Hamey suggested "{#}" (see 17-Sep-82 17:42 post). After that, someone suggested "\__/" (see 20-Sep-82 17:56 post). But only ":-)" gained popularity.
It is funny to imagine how emoticons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons) would look today if one of alternative symbols was accepted?
- anewhnaccount 10y agoI guess they might look a bit like the ones at the bottom under "Eastern".
- nathancahill 10y ago¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- tetraodonpuffer 10y agowould be interesting to know where that one started...
- wodenokoto 10y agoThere is a whole parallel smiley history from Asia that either hasn't been documented as well as the western smileys or simply hasn't been translated. The notable thing about asian smileys is that they have the same horizon as the text, whereas western smileys needs to be turned 90 degrees. Compare (^.^) with :-) So given that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ is both unicode and horizontal indicates that it is either from Asia or came to be after asian smileys became more prevalent in the west.
- TorKlingberg 10y agoProbably Japan. ツ is a very common Japanese charterer pronounced "tsu". As wodenokoto said there is a whole separate history of Asian smileys that are right way up, with the face in the middle and various decorations on both sides. They did have the advantage of a larger set of characters from the start.
- jcl 10y agoOne example predating computers is "henohenomoheji", a face made out of Japanese hiragana, used as a generic face in children's art and crafts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henohenomoheji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henohenomoheji
- happy-go-lucky 10y agoTIL it's a kaomoji :-) Here's an article by a regular user of the emoticon http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/the-best-way-to-type-__/371351/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/the-be... And a wiki about those characters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
- iSnow 10y agoI am guessing, but I'd suspect one of the better known imageboards like 2Chan, 4Chan or Ylilauta.
- retox 10y ago( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
- lucaslazaro 10y agoNot only # \__/ and :-) were suggested but also '&', which the explanation on why is (to say at least) imaginative: 17-Sep-82 17:40 Keith Wright at CMU-10A *%&#$ Jokes! No, no, no! Surely everyone will agree that "&" is the funniest character on the keyboard. It looks funny (like a jolly fat man in convulsions of laughter). It sounds funny (say it loud and fast three times). I just know if I could get my nose into the vacuum of the CRT it would even smell funny!
- jgw 10y agoOf course, Fahlman is a Lisper, so of course he's going to use parens... ;)
- gberger 10y agoI don't understand "{#}" and "\__/". Are they supposed to be arbitrary markers, or interpreted in some way?
- paler 10y ago{#} would be a grinning mouth with teeth showing, and \__/ is a smiling mouth.
- Grangar 10y agoThe second one could be interpreted as a smiling mouth. I think.
- c0achmcguirk 10y ago"{#}" was proposed because it looks like teeth showing. "\_/" was proposed because it looks like a smile.
- david-given 10y agoI'm trying to visualise the first one, but the only thing which comes to mind is Jaws from the old James Bond films. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/jamesbond/images/8/86/Jaws_-_Profile_(2).jpg http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/jamesbond/images/8/86/Ja...
- leereeves 10y agoPerhaps {#} would have evolved into Japanese-style emoticons like: (-_-) and (^.^)