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I would extend "the same thing everywhere" through time as well, i.e. it's a bad thing to ever change the meaning of an emoji after it's been published, for the

by xg15 2y ago

I would extend "the same thing everywhere" through time as well, i.e. it's a bad thing to ever change the meaning of an emoji after it's been published, for the obvious reason that this messes with old texts and all other locations where the emoji has been used with the old meaning. This means that the move back then to change the gun to a water pistol was an extremely bad move, no question here. But moving it back to the original meaning now is just as bad - it will just disrupt in the same way lots of newer texts that assume the glyph is a water pistol.

Muromec 2y ago
It will keep happening the same way languages gradually change and for exactly the same reasons. Being in flux isn’t a bug, it’s the content of culture. Doing the stuff differently compared to /the other group/ to know you belong to /this group/ is everybody’s favorite game.
- xg15 2y ago
  There are different ways how languages can change. A language changes organically, if individual people simply talk differently than their predecessors, out of convenience, without any specific intent or plan behind it. That's the way languages have always changed throughout history and keep changing. Deliberately changing a language and pressuring other people to adopt certain changes in their vocabulary is something entirely different. That too has been tried often in history, but has usually led to conflict and was part of expressions of power. Emojis can change their meaning organically too, if people just start using them in a different way. Eggplant emoji being the most obvious example I think. But pushing an update to change the glyph would be about the most top-down and deliberate way to change its meaning that I can think of.
  - Muromec 2y ago
    >pushing an update to change the glyph would be about the most top-down and deliberate way to change its meaning that I can think of. Chairman Mao enters the chat
- Gormo 2y ago
  No, I don't think that applies here. Languages evolve and new terminology enters the lexicon all of the time, but that absolutely does not retrospectively change the rendering of pre-existing expressions of language.
  - Muromec 2y ago
    That absolutely happens. Meanings change, jump from one word to another, words take the opposite meaning all the time. Pronunciations change too, letters that are supposed to sound differently suddenly don’t and other way around too.

by xg15 2y ago

Muromec 2y ago

It will keep happening the same way languages gradually change and for exactly the same reasons. Being in flux isn’t a bug, it’s the content of culture. Doing the stuff differently compared to /the other group/ to know you belong to /this group/ is everybody’s favorite game.

xg15 2y ago
There are different ways how languages can change. A language changes organically, if individual people simply talk differently than their predecessors, out of convenience, without any specific intent or plan behind it. That's the way languages have always changed throughout history and keep changing. Deliberately changing a language and pressuring other people to adopt certain changes in their vocabulary is something entirely different. That too has been tried often in history, but has usually led to conflict and was part of expressions of power. Emojis can change their meaning organically too, if people just start using them in a different way. Eggplant emoji being the most obvious example I think. But pushing an update to change the glyph would be about the most top-down and deliberate way to change its meaning that I can think of.
- Muromec 2y ago
  >pushing an update to change the glyph would be about the most top-down and deliberate way to change its meaning that I can think of. Chairman Mao enters the chat
Gormo 2y ago
No, I don't think that applies here. Languages evolve and new terminology enters the lexicon all of the time, but that absolutely does not retrospectively change the rendering of pre-existing expressions of language.
- Muromec 2y ago
  That absolutely happens. Meanings change, jump from one word to another, words take the opposite meaning all the time. Pronunciations change too, letters that are supposed to sound differently suddenly don’t and other way around too.