Official News page 7

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SMILEY

by Hazed

Last Wednesday was not just International Talk Like a Pirate Day (arrrrr!) it was also the smiley's birthday. At least, it was according to Professor Scott E Fahlman from Carnegie Mellon University, who says that at 11:44am on September 19 1982, during an electronic bulletin board discussion about "the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly", he made the following suggestion:

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-). Read it sideways."

Fahlman says he's never seen any evidence that the smiley was in use before he came up with the idea, and that although it's possible somebody else thought of it independently, he's never actually found anyone who claims they did. So in the absence of contradictory evidence, he's the father of the smiley. What an honor!

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