User:Alexis Reggae/Emoji proposal

RfC: template to automatically populate pages for emojis

Should {{Emoji info}} be used to provide information about emojis that aren't notable enough to have their own article and aren't flags? (example for 🔥, example for 🧘 where parameters can specify the target)

Background (template to automatically populate pages for emojis)

After several discussions (most recently Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Emoji redirects) a few things came to light. Currently we often redirect emojis to what they portray. For example, 🔥 redirects to fire. Sometimes there's discussion about that, for example, some people see 🔥 as a flame. For another example, 🤪 currently redirects to Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs, though it used to redirect to insanity and later silliness. It could also redirect to eccentricity or jester, so it's ambigious.

And there's a problem with the redirect to Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs. It's hard to find any given emoji on pages that describe Unicode blocks. Even if you find it, there's no additional info. The Unicode description can be seen on hover, but hover isn't accessible.

A reader who tries to look up an emoji on Wikipedia has almost universally only one question: what's this? The proposed template answers the question by providing the official Unicode description, a link to an identically titled article if there is one (like fire) or optionally a different article by providing a parameter. It also provides an image of the emoji (as not all systems can render all emojis) and pulls links to additional resources from Wikidata. The basic information is pulled locally from Module:Unicode data and Module:EmojiWiktionaryCheck, but the template includes code to pull the basic information from Wikidata instead if that's ever needed/desired.

Currently many, many emojis already have a redirect that leads somewhere. These would be replaced with the template. To be clear: emoji pages with this template should be classified as a kind of soft redirect/disambiguation, not as actual articles. This proposal does not affect notability of emojis.

This proposal does not cover flag emojis (colloquially known as regional indicator symbols 🤪) for technical reasons. For a list of emojis, see emoji-test.txt on Unicode.org. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 20:31, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

References