Unicode Character 'FROWNING PILE OF POO' (U+1F979)

Great Moments in Standards Committees:

1F979 FROWNING PILE OF POO: Question on the justification for encoding this character, and whether it will encourage the encoding of other emotions on PILE OF POO; request to remove character.

MICHAEL EVERSON:

    This character is damaging to both ISO/IEC 10646 and the Unicode Standard. It is bad enough that the ESC came up with it, but it beggars believe that the UTC actually approved it. Organic waste isn't cute. The existing PILE OF POO character was added for compatibility with Japanese telco sets. It is a pity that Apple followed Softbank rather than KDDI in its reference glyph, since a coil of dog dirt with stink lines and flies is surely the only proper semantic.

    The idea that our committees would sanction further cute graphic characters based on this should embarrass absolutely everyone who votes yes on such an excrescence. Will we have a CRYING PILE OF POO next? PILE OF POO WITH TONGUE STICKING OUT? PILE OF POO WITH QUESTION MARKS FOR EYES? PILE OF POO WITH KARAOKE MIC? Will we have to encode a neutral FACELESS PILE OF POO?

    As an ordinary user, I don't want this kind of crap on my phone. As a representative of the National Standards Authority of Ireland, I have to wonder what possible good could come of encoding such a character. Bullying, perhaps? Requested change: Remove this character from the PDAM and reject its encoding.

ANDREW WEST:

    I'm concerned that this character will open the floodgates for an open-ended set of PILE OF POO emoji with emotions, such as CRYING PILE OF POO, PILE OF POO WITH LOOK OF TRIUMPH, PILE OF POO SCREAMING IN FEAR, etc. Is there really any need to add a range of emotions to PILE OF POO?

    I personally think that changing PILE OF POO to a de facto SMILING PILE OF POO was wrong, but adding F|FROWNING PILE OF POO as a counterpart is even worse. If this is accepted then there will be no neutral, expressionless PILE OF POO, so at least a PILE OF POO WITH NO FACE would be required to be encoded to restore some balance. I recommend removing FROWNING PILE OF POO pending further study and public consultation on the need for additional PILE OF POO emoji.

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19 Responses:

  1. ian says:

    Jesus people, this is why we have combining characters. Isn't it?

  2. Phil says:

    Clearly these should be compound characters with a ZWJ sequence. Poo should be able to have any expression.

  3. MattyJ says:

    "I don't want this kind of crap on my phone." Ha! I see what he did there.

    BTW, the new Previously side feed is brilliant and awesome but it often turns into one of the deepest clickholes of by day/week. I'm developing quite a love/hate relationship with it.

    • jwz says:

      "The poop you find may surprise you!"

      It does make me regret the years worth of dumb shit that I didn't give thumbnails to.

      • dzm says:

        It's never too late to fix that oversight. We clickhole addicts would thank you.

  4. This is full of treasures:

    1F9F6 BALL OF YARN: Consider adding knitting needles to glyph.
    MICHAEL EVERSON:
    I do miss knitting needles here, as do my knitting friends. My cat is happy with the ball of yarn
    on its own. What’s the story?

    Also apparently nobody can tell the difference between a donut and a bagel.

  5. anon3494 says:

    Why is there still no Goatse emoji?!

  6. David Kendal says:

    My personal favourite part is the poor sap who spilled several thousand words making a new version of a proposal which had been rejected a few days earlier.

  7. pavel_lishin says:

    I will not rest until the VOMITING POO is part of the standard.

  8. Elusis says:

    I'll vote for anything as long as they don't normalize top posting and >4-line signature files.

  9. Tim says:

    I am distressed that this historic opportunity to encode the Bristol Stool Scale has been squandered.

  10. Joshuag says:

    And people say that standards development is boring, tedious work.

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