I've long had vague memories that I was present at the creation of the emoticon, but did not remember the details and had no proof---until now. Slashdot has a story about the first smiley, which links to a site that has a copy of a bulletin board thread from 1982. My contribution was the suggestion that the character should be chosen to look like something. It doesn't appear in the quoted part of the thread, but I remember advocating that the parenthesis should appear in balanced pairs, to form "joke brackets" which mark the beginning and end of the joke. This suggestion never caught on, which is a bit surprising because Scott Fahlman is a Lisp guy. (-: I would throw a big party to celebrate the 20'th anniversary of the smiley, but I hate the damn things :-) -- Keith ----------------- From: http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/Smiley.html I think this is the best research ever done at MS. ---------------- <discussion of strange physics Gedanken experiments> = 16-Sep-82 12:09 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Pigeon type question This question does not involve pigeons, but is similar: There is a lit candle in an elevator mounted on a bracket attached to the middle of one wall (say, 2" from the wall). A drop of mercury is on the floor. The cable snaps and the elevator falls. What happens to the candle and the mercury? = 16-Sep-82 17:21 Howard Gayle at CMU-780G WARNING! Because of a recent physics experiment, the leftmost elevator has been contaminated with mercury. There is also some slight fire damage. Decontamination should be complete by 08:00 Friday. = 16-Sep-82 21:34 Rudy Nedved at CMU-10A Re: WARNING!! The previous bboard message about mercury is related to the comment by Neil Swartz about Physics experiments. It is not an actual problem. Last year parts of Doherty Hall were closed off because of spilled mercury. My high school closed down a lab because of a dropped bottle of mercury. My apology for spoiling the joke but people were upset and yelling fire in a crowded theatre is bad news....so are jokes on day old comments. = 17-Sep-82 10:58 Neil Swartz at CMU-750R Elevator posts Apparently there has been some confusion about elevators and such. After talking to Rudy, I have discovered that there is no mercury spill in any of the Wean hall elevators. Many people seem to have taken the notice about the physics department seriously. Maybe we should adopt a convention of putting a star (*) in the subject field of any notice which is to be taken as a joke. = 17-Sep-82 13:04 Scott Fahlman at CMU-10A Elevators (*) Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the elevator... Unfortunately, the center elevator now contains what seems to be the remains of 40,000 two-pound pigeons in an advanced state of decomposition and the right elevator contains a bear of indeterminate color. The left elevator appears to be safe, but when you stand in it for too long, your voice gets squeaky and you start running into the walls, causing the elevator to rise. Despite the * in the header of this message, this is not a joke and should be taken quite literallly. Do not panic -- taking the stairs is good for you. = 17-Sep-82 14:59 Joseph Ginder at CMU-10A (*%) I believe that the joke character should be % rather than *. = 17-Sep-82 15:15 Anthony Stentz at CMU-780G (*%) How about using * for good jokes and % for bad jokes? We could even use *% for jokes that are so bad, they're funny. = 17-Sep-82 17:40 Keith Wright at CMU-10A *%&#$ Jokes! No, no, no! Surely everyone will agree that "&" is the funniest character on the keyboard. It looks funny (like a jolly fat man in convulsions of laughter). It sounds funny (say it loud and fast three times). I just know if I could get my nose into the vacuum of the CRT it would even smell funny! = 17-Sep-82 17:42 Leonard Hamey at CMU-10A {#} (previously *) A detailed (i.e. > 1 minute) study of the aesthetic and pictographic effects of the characters available in the ASCII set has led to the following suggestion: I think that the joke character should be the sequence {#} because it looks like two lips with teeth showing between them. This is the expected result if someone actually laughs their head off. An obvious abbreviation of this sequence would be the hash character itself (which can also be read as the sharp character and suggests a quality which may be lacking in those too obtuse to appreciate the joke.) = 18-Sep-82 20:40 Guy Steele at CMU-10A ! Joke markers again I hope everyone realized that my previous remark about non-use of joke markers was a joke, and was flagged as such by the absence of a marker. This message is not a joke, as indicated by the exclamation point. = 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 :-( = 20-Sep-82 16:23 Dave Touretzky at CMU-10A (-: bboard software change As of October 1st, the General bboard will be renamed the Jokes bboard. Please update your SWITCH.INI file. In the event of a serious notice, we will post it under the name "Sharon Burks". When the bboard contains messages whose total bogosity score exceeds 5000 microLenats, the file will be zeroed so novice bboard players can have a chance to score. =