Thoughts on Emoji Selection Process

[Julian Wels via Unicode]

James Kass wrote,
> Like, is there a semantic
> difference between PICTURE OF SQUIRREL vs. PICTURE OF CHIPMUNK or
> BASEBALL vs. SOFTBALL or AUSTALOPITHECINE RIDING THREE-LEGGED HORSE
> vs. AUSTALOPITHECINE WITH MOHAWK RIDING THREE-LEGGED HORSE, and so
> forth.

Yeah they should deal with those questions, but right now I imagine they
would just add all of those. Just that the Australopithecine would have all
gender, hair-style and ball-holding modifiers.
And this is polluting a system where things that once were added can't be
removed.

It's all so contradictory, here
<http://www.unicode.org/faq/emoji_dingbats.html#14> they are encouraging
the use of sticker packs as a long-term solution, here
<http://www.unicode.org/faq/emoji_dingbats.html#4.2> they say they want to
add 60 new emoji per year.
Also - as I just recently discovered - Hair Components
<http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#hair_components> were added in 11.0,
which will just lead to an absurd amount of complexity. And what is
achieved with that? Which gap does this fill? Who will use such specific
Emojis frequently (B. Expected usage level
<https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html#Selection_Factors_Usage>)? And if
this is not F. Overly specific
<https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html#Specific> or  close to an L. Exact
Image <https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html#Exact_Images> then I don't
know what is!

I'm not really sure we can cut them any slack here...

Julian ��️

On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 3:32 AM James Kass via Unicode <unicode at unicode.org>
wrote:

> Charlotte Buff wrote,
>
> > A squirrel is too similar to a chipmunk, but a
> > softball must be disunified from a baseball.
>
> Let's not be too harsh on the ESC.  The set of in-line pictures which
> some might use to adorn text is open-ended.  The ESC has to deal with
> the really tough questions every day.  Like, is there a semantic
> difference between PICTURE OF SQUIRREL vs. PICTURE OF CHIPMUNK or
> BASEBALL vs. SOFTBALL or AUSTALOPITHECINE RIDING THREE-LEGGED HORSE
> vs. AUSTALOPITHECINE WITH MOHAWK RIDING THREE-LEGGED HORSE, and so
> forth.  I wouldn't be able to make such difficult decisions without
> flipping a coin, so I'd doff my hat to the ESC if I wore one.
>
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