The need for a basic register of emoji submissions

[Anshuman Pandey via Unicode]

There is a need for a basic register of proposals that have been
submitted to the Emoji Subcommittee. Currently, emoji proposals are
posted to the UTC register after they have been reviewed by the ESC as
being actionable by the UTC. For proposals that make the cut, some
time can pass between the date of submission and the date they are
posted. For proposals that are deemed unsuitable, there is simply no
public record.

Consequently, there is no way to know if a particular emoji has been
proposed, either while a submitted proposal is being reviewed or if a
proposal has been rejected. The "Submitting Emoji Proposals" page at
http://unicode.org/emoji/selection.html quixotically notifies the
reader using bold face to "check the Emoji List to make sure your
proposal is new": this list contains emoji that have already been
encoded.

This is a problem. There have been three instances where I have worked
on emoji proposals only to later learn that they were already proposed
earlier. And I learned that only because I check the UTC register
frequently for my script encoding efforts. If there were a basic
register of emoji submissions, I could have easily checked it and
saved the hours I spent in drawing up documents.

The de facto rationale for not posting emoji proposals to the UTC
register right away is that 'there are too many proposals that are
unactionable or of insufficient quality'. But, I think this rationale
does not hold water too well. A basic task of a standards subcommittee
is to maintain a list of artifacts that pertain to its function. For
the ESC, these artifacts include all emoji submissions. And a list of
these artifacts can easily be made available at
http://unicode.org/emoji. So, that instead of pointing prospective
emoji proposal authors to a list of already encoded emoji, they can be
pointed to a list of emoji submissions.

This basic register can be as simple as a list of names. If the ESC
wishes to not post other details, that is fine. I am not asking for a
Roadmap.

I see from the announcement made yesterday that the ESC now has (at
least) four members. Congratulations to the new members, who I believe
to be highly capable of maintaining a simple public list of emoji
submissions in short time.

All my best,
Anshu