Talk:Emoticon

More smileys

I have an extensive collection of them here. BTW, I usually include a "-" (for the nose), as in ":-)". Is that no longer done? J. Noel Chiappa 19:18, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

I think it's best to include a "variatiation" section then just adding to the list. --Robert W King 20:06, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

A smiley subculture ...

Unfortunately I can't provide a source for this, only years of message boards amongst different groups, but I had been told that smileys like ^_^ -_- and such originate from, or are more widely used by, anime/manga followers ... I really don't know how to go about credibly verifying this claim, though it is something I observe often.

BTW, Noel, I use 'nose' variants as well--it's a bit cutesy of me to admit it here but I like :0) myself.Louise Valmoria 20:16, 20 March 2008 (CDT) (<-- later edit--sorry, I did get your name wrong)

There's some real history to dig up here, as smileys go back a long way; it's just a matter of finding the sources. --Robert W King 20:18, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

So far, a quick search seems to term them as 'Japanese' smileys: i.e. here and here. And it actually makes a bit of sense to me, seeing them termed as Japanese smileys, given as I have often seen them come from anime fans.Louise Valmoria 20:28, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

The upright ones I do think are likely Japanese; I think the sideways ones were pretty engrained in the West, and so left no room for others here. The original sideways ones come from Usenet (which began as, and was basically a US phenomenon), and quite a while back. I have an email from August '83 (which you can see here) which indicates that they had been in existence for a while already at that point (although perhaps only a year or so, I would guess, from the tone, which indicates it's a bit of a new toy at that point). J. Noel Chiappa 20:54, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

Awesome! Now we just need to find out what "awhile back" means. --Robert W King 22:01, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

The upright ones seem to be a more recent phenomenon, yes. My Japanese isn't nearly fluent, so I'm not able to scout through any archives and find out the origins of the upright ones ... meanwhile it's fascinating to see the history of these things (Mr T. was forever ago--so is some of that lingo!) and how their meanings evolve--like :-D being that one talks too much. Fascinating stuff. Louise Valmoria 23:53, 20 March 2008 (CDT)

Let me know if you want to be able to permanently link to that '83 message (or the later collection), and I'll put them in a portion of the website which is stable (i.e. guaranteed to be at that URL for a long time to come). J. Noel Chiappa 00:42, 21 March 2008 (CDT)

I think we can just create a subpage or something with the email body in it. Maybe even screencapture it and upload it as a jpeg. --Robert W King 09:49, 21 March 2008 (CDT)