Emoticons are 25 years old this week

[Fiodoir Ard Mhacha]

It's 25 years this week since the birth of the emoticon, a symbol (or combination of symbols) used to convey emotional content in written or message form, which was created, purely by accident, by a US academic in September 1982 who was trying to differentiate between serious and tongue-in-cheeks comments on an early version of the internet discussion board.

The creator of the original emoticons :-) and :-(, with a specific suggestion that they be used to express emotion, was Scott Fahlman; the text of his original proposal, posted to the Carnegie Mellon University computer science general board on 19 September 1982 (11:44), was considered lost for a long time. It was however recovered twenty years later in 2002 by Jeff Baird, from old backup tapes.


19-Sep-1982 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman             :-)
From: Scott E  Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
       
:-)
       
Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends.  For this, use
       
:-(

However, 25 years on, the creator Fahlman has disassociated himself from the myriad of 'cons that have developed since then, including eyes to heaven, tongue stuck out and even Marge and Homer Simpson lookalikes.  He has been quoted as saying he would like a frown on his gravestone because of the monster he created.

[ziggysego]

Homer Simpson - ~(_8^(|)

Marge Simpson - ######:o)

C|:-)= - Charlie Chaplin

B-)===> - ZZ Top

=|:-)## - Uncle Sam

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Homer Simpson - ~(_8^(|)

Marge Simpson - ######:o)

C|:-)= - Charlie Chaplin

B-)===> - ZZ Top

=|:-)## - Uncle Sam

Ziggy lad, you have way to much time on your hands!  ;-)

[ziggysego]

Homer Simpson - ~(_8^(|)

Marge Simpson - ######:o)

C|:-)= - Charlie Chaplin

B-)===> - ZZ Top

=|:-)## - Uncle Sam

Ziggy lad, you have way to much time on your hands!  ;-)

Not really. Doing some work for the club here and I needed to switch off for a few minutes

[Square Ball]

(8¬(i)><>

another Homer