Adding some emoji reactions

[CC_Jon]

Summary

This week we changed to a new emoji reaction system. I’ve grown to love emoji reactions because they are a lightweight way to acknowledge a post. I don’t have to respond with a whole new post, I can just give it a or whatnot.

The initial list of emojis was rather limited and don’t match the way CC currently responds to posts. So I’ve added a few more emojis to respond with:

See the update below.

Methodology

So when trying to figure out what emojis to add, I looked at which emojis are the most common in posts. I sampled 1% of posts and counted how many emojis were used. Here are the most common:

emoji	count
	826
	659
	211
	157
	121
	84
	81
	70
	36
	30
	17
	17
	16
	15
	13
	11
	10
	9
	8
	8
	8
	6
	5

We can eliminate a few of these as reactions. has been interpreted as dismissive of the person who wrote the post.

I’m not 100% sure what represents here, but it doesn’t have any negative connotation that I can think of. Since it’s so commonly used, I figure we better add it. (Please let me know why it’s so common, if you know!)

For the rest, we want to cover a variety of potential emotions a post might prompt. It certainly won’t cover everything, but it will be a lot closer than what we currently have.

In the future, we will certainly consider adding more. We might also remove emojis that aren’t getting used. There’s no particular limit except that the list gets long and hard to navigate. The goal is to cover a large percentage of the possible reactions people will have. Nothing says you can’t just write a reaction post.

[tamagotchi]

I think is important since it is the one most commonly used to congratulate people on an admission, etc.

I also think it important for people to have a reaction to express sympathy and support. I have seen some of these used, for example:

[momofboiler1]

I’d love the blue hug emoji back.

[skieurope]

@CC_Jon

. I sampled 1% of posts

While the sample may have been ok, the timing was not. With ED and EA decisions coming in, will be a popular emoji.

And I agree that hugs is an emoji that is appropriate in certain instances, but (fortunately) is not continuously used, but still valuable.

[Sweetgum]

I do not like the blue hug emoji . It never looks like a hug to me. I wonder why the emoji folks didn’t make it yellow, too? It always looks like a movie camera icon. I do wish there was a better hug emoji that wasn’t smiling because sometimes if somebody died or something you don’t want a smiley hug , but that blue hug just doesn’t do it for me. Just something to take up with the emoji design committee I guess.

I have never seen the gift icon used that I can recall. I wonder if that is mapping incorrectly to something else? I have seen 100 and the Target/dart emojis used a lot.

[MAmomto4]

@Sweetgum

I do not like the blue hug emoji . It never looks like a hug to me. It always looks like a movie camera icon.

Until I read this post, I thought that was a movie camera icon. I could not figure out why people would post a in relation to someone’s really sad post. Thank you for enlightening me!

[DramaMama2021]

I’m very confused about the representation! Not only have I not noted its popular use, I’m struggling to understand why it supposedly was so popular. I’d check that code.

At a quick glance, most of the others in regular use have enough overlap in meaning that they can be consolidated to a reasonable list of options.

ETA: Admins, please point out to us Gen X peeps if there are emojis used differently or more frequently by the Gen Z crowd! Oof.

[CC_Mike]

@MAmomto4

I thought that was a movie camera icon

I always thought it was a bunny rabbit!

[CottonTales]

I thought it was a box of Kleenex.

[Gatormama]

Need a hug emoji!
Ton of deferrals today and all of us have to sit there in emoji silence

[CC_Jon]

@Sweetgum

I have never seen the gift icon used that I can recall. I wonder if that is mapping incorrectly to something else? I have seen 100 and the Target/dart emojis used a lot.

So, um, it’s used all the time by the welcome . It used to send a message to new users that ended with:

If you’d like to learn more, select below and bookmark this personal message. If you do, there may be a in your future!

When I excluded the bot, the gift emoji disappeared. So I’m removing it from the reactions too.

I’m also substituting for based on feedback in the other thread.

With two slots in the array, I’m adding:

[Sweetgum]

That is great.

I would say pick just 1 or 2 of these. Don’t think we need 3 for similar feelings. Maybe the and the ? Still don’t get the lightbulb . Maybe switch that to I know the “name” for that is “pray” but I think a lot of people just use it for thank you.

[happy1]

Thanks for adding some back @CC_Jon
FWIW I don’t think we need a thumbs emoji since we can hit “thumbs up” directly on the post.

[O2BonCC]

Not sure if it’s to late for feedback but I’m in favor of keeping the lightbulb icon. I’m used to seeing it on other sites, and to me it means good idea/thanks for the information/I didn’t know that! The praying hands seem a little religious-ey to me.

[thumper1]

I swear the emoji I use the most is .

But I understand that might not be welcoming!

[happy1]

Oh sorry…looks like the thumbs up just shows up on the left side not as a duplicate emoji.