The Original Text Smiley Turns 25!

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The orignal text smiley was created on September 19, 1982.� You’ll recognize it as :-).�� It has since morphed into all kinds of emoticons that can hardly be understood without a cheat sheet.� Here is the message board posting from Scott Fahlman that started it all:

19-Sep-82 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

:-(

�There are now scores of different emoticons that can be expressed with text.

:D� (Smiling)
=)� (Smiling)
;]� (Winking)
:]� (Neutral Expression)
:/� (Partial half smile)
:(� (Frowning)
:’( (Crying)
:-) (Smiley with nose)
:o� (Talking)
<:o) (party smile)
:p� (Poking his tongue out)