Because you can't see the person who is sending you electronic mail you
are sometimes uncertain whether they are serious or joking. Recently,
Scott Fahlman at CMU devised a scheme for annotating one's messages to
overcome this problem. If you turn your head sideways to look at the
three characters :-) they look sort of like a smiling face. Thus, if
someone sends you a message that says "Have you stopped beating your
wife? :-) " you know they are joking. If they say "I need to talk to
you :-( ", be prepared for trouble.
Since Scott's original proposal, many further symbols have been proposed:
:-) humor.
:-> humor variation. (pointed/sarcastic)
%-} humor variation. (warped)
:-( sad.
:-< sad variation. (angry)
%-{ sad variation. (disappointed)
:_) tongue in cheek
:-! foot in mouth
<:-) for dumb questions.
(:-) for messages dealing with bicycle helmets.
(8-) for messages dealing with owls. (or suprise)
d:-) for messages dealing with baseball.
d :-o hats off to your great idea
q:-) for those who wear their caps backwards.
@= for messages dealing with nuclear war.
o>-<|= for messages of interest only to women.
~= a candle, to annotate flaming messages.
oo for somebody's head-lights are on messages.
;-) say no more, nudge nudge.
:-$ put your money where your mouth is
>:-> leer
;-} leer? (terminal dependent)
|-<> kissy face
:-| man playing an harmonica
O:-) for those innocent souls
[:|] from a robot (or other appropriate AI project)
:>) from someone with a big nose
:<| from someone who attends an Ivy League school
:%)% from someone with acne
=:-) from a hosehead
:-(*) from someone who is about to vomit
:-)8 from someone who is well dressed
8:-) from a little girl
:-)-{8 from a big girl
#-) from someone who partied all night
%-\ from someone hungover
:-* from someone who just ate a sour pickle
-:-) from someone who sports a mohawk and admires Mr. T
:-'| from someone who has a cold
:-)' from somone who tends to drool
':-) from someone who accidentally shaved off one of his eyebrows
8:] from a gorilla
(:)-) from someone wearing scuba mask
P-) from someone getting fresh
|-) from someone who is falling asleep
.-) from someone with one eye
:=) from someone with two noses
:-D from someone who talks too much
Miscellaneous:
(-:|:-) Siamese twins
:~/ Really mixed up
the invisible man
{:\/ sounds like a duck
.\/ duck variation
:-0
|:-O
%+{ from the loser of a fight
___
/ \
| RIP |
|_____| from someone who is dead
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So you see, bit-mapped displays are really quite unnecessary :->
