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I never use emojis (I'm not even sure how people manage to input them on a keyboard, I assume they're using mobile devices?) but I try to avoid the kneejerk rea
by simias 8y ago
I never use emojis (I'm not even sure how people manage to input them on a keyboard, I assume they're using mobile devices?) but I try to avoid the kneejerk reaction of hating on them, they're mostly harmless. It's very tempting to go on a "back in my days we couldn't even put accents in commit messages" rant but in the end it doesn't really matter.
If it makes writing commit messages more fun and it means that people will make more of an effort to come up with descriptive messages then I say amazing. I can't count the number of open source projects where people write absolutely useless commit messages, even coming from projects I respect. I'll take emojis over "several changes, new stuff" or "some other small fixes" (to quote actual commits from an open source project I've been hacking on lately).
Of course both things are largely unrelated but I just wanted to point out that there's not a very strong "commit etiquette" in the hacker community as of today, it's not like much of value will be lost by letting kids use emojis in them, and maybe a little could be gained.
- omeid2 8y ago> they're mostly harmless. I don't believe that, the confusion around the meaning of emojis are well established[0][1][2][3]. I strongly suspect that the confusion and vagueness is even more predominant in professional communications than personal. Please consider that everyday the likelihood of someone reading your code who is from a different culture or context is even higher, somethings might seem obvious to us, but that is not necessarily objectively so. If you think I am making an argument for using plain and simple language and not just avoid emoji, you're right, that is the point. From a pure economic point of view, considering the arguably nonexistence value emojis provide, any risk or cost is too much. 0. https://www.businessinsider.com/science-reveals-the-most-confusing-emoji-2016-4/?r=AU&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/science-reveals-the-most-con... 1. http://fortune.com/2016/04/14/emoji-miscommunication-study-umn/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/14/emoji-miscommunication-study-u... 2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3549376/Frustrated-triumphant-probably-sending-wrong-signals-using-12-commonly-misunderstood-emojis.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3549376/Frust... 3. https://www.mrporter.com/journal/modern-problems/the-most-confusing-emojis-explained/1986 https://www.mrporter.com/journal/modern-problems/the-most-co...
- ensignro2340 8y agoYour first 3 links are all referencing the same University of Minnesota study. Your last link seems to be based on the writer’s observations (I did not find it linking or mentioning any study). I’m not even disagreeing with the fact that some emojis can be misunderstood (especially cross-culturally and when they are displayed very differently on devices) but you can’t just link 3 news stories covering the same study as if you’ve found a mountain of evidence to support your claims.