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0 pointslelanthran19d ago0 comments

Smileys were something else (pure acid, like this :-)).

ISTR the brief time you mention calling these things emoticons.

0 comments

You have it backwards, sir, :-) are the emoticons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

IIRC "smileys" were what you got from fonts like Wingdings, and I believe those were short-lived. You could type :) and MS Word or Outlook, for example, would "helpfully" give you the Wingdings happy face, which would show up as a J for anyone who didn't have that font.

:-) and friends were "emoticons" for decades.

allenu19d ago

You're probably right about the terminology being around for a while, but I think most people just called them smileys (i.e. ;) would be called a "winking smiley"). I remember seeing the term used maybe in the early- or mid-90s either on a BBS or Usenet and thinking "Ah, that's what they're called" and as a nerd being annoyed that nobody used that term colloquially.

Kwpolska19d ago

Microsoft Office used Wingdings, but forums (based on e.g. phpBB) or IMs would replace :) with an image.

butlike19d ago

I completely forgot about "J" and the discourse it causes amongst my friend group.

joshuaissac18d ago

> short-lived

Outlook was doing this even 3-4 years ago.

badc0ffee18d ago

3-4 years ago I hope it was actual emojis, and not Wingdings.

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