👾 ( talk| | history| logs| links| watch) ( XfD| restore)

I would like to reopen the old discussion over the 👾 -> Space Invaders redirect idea. As far as I can tell it was last discussed in 2016, with the consensus that at that time it wouldn't work, since the icon looked different depending on the font. Within these past 5 years, it seems that the majority of providers have decided on the video game character design. (see the emojipedia entry) ~ฅ(ↀωↀ=) neko-chan ^nyan 07:15, 23 February 2021 (UTC) reply

• Weak endorse. Previous RfD closer here. This emoji still looks inconsistent across platforms to me - looks like a space invader on one device and a purple octopus on another. Deryck C. 13:26, 23 February 2021 (UTC) reply
• A major concern at the RfD was that the redirect is ambiguous. This emoji is supposed to be an "ALIEN MONSTER", but that doesn't necessarily mean Space Invaders and there were suggestions at RfD that it should point to Bug-eyed monster or Extraterrestrial life. That argument hasn't been addressed. Hut 8.5 17:55, 23 February 2021 (UTC) reply
• Endorse, concurring with the comments of User:Hut 8.5. On my Android, it looks like a purple octopus, except that two tentacles are either lost or hidden. On my Windows 10 desktop, it looks like a purple trash can, until I magnify it to 300%, and then it looks like a purple Halloween mask. So I have no idea what it is, and so I see no reason to unprotect it and allow this monster to invade us. Robert McClenon ( talk) 01:06, 24 February 2021 (UTC) reply
• Endorse. Good close. No consensus that it means anything singular, let alone meaningfully. It’s use should not be encouraged. — SmokeyJoe ( talk) 21:12, 24 February 2021 (UTC) reply
• Allow recreation — We're getting this wrong. First, what is it: it's a unicode character, specifically U+1F47E, "Alien Monster", part of a unicode block called " Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs". We normally have redirects from unicode characters, they are in Category:Redirects from Unicode characters. We also have redirects from emoji unicode characters: Category:Redirects from emoji (over 1,400 redirects). There is no reason to exclude this particular emoji. Just as we have articles about letters, numbers, and other symbols, emojis are perfectly valid entries in the encyclopedia; even if they don't all merit full articles, they should at least be a redirect to a list of emojis or similar. People who want to know "what is this symbol" should be able to type it into the search box and get to an article that tells them what it is. (Keep in mind that the majority of our readers are reading on mobile phones, where these unicode emojis are easily accessed and commonly used.) Many of these unicode emojis come to represent specific concepts. I don't know if the article Space Invaders is the right target for this redirect (it probably is, but redirect target is a content issue), but look at Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs#Chart and click on those symbols. They're almost all redirects, and it's a very helpful navigation aid to have them as redirects. Not only is it a useful navigation aid, but it's also educational. It furthers our core mission to cover emojis in the encyclopedia. You want to know what one of those symbols on the chart means? Just click on it. (Except 👾... for now.) Pew pew, Levivich  ^harass/ _hound 04:01, 26 February 2021 (UTC) reply
• Endorse. Reasonable reading of the RFD, and an implausible search term in any case. Sjakkalle (Check!) 21:28, 28 February 2021 (UTC) reply
  • My "endorse" vote extends only to the original redirect. While I still believe the search term is unlikely to be used much, redirecting to a more appropriate article remains on the table. Allowing recreation as proposed by Cunard is a reasonable course of action. Sjakkalle (Check!) 21:08, 2 March 2021 (UTC) reply
• Allow recreation as a redirect to Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs#👾. I agree with Levivich and Neko-chan that 👾 should redirect to somewhere.

  A search in Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs for "👾" returns an entry in Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs#Chart.

  This could become a useful redirect for readers if Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs were expanded to have a table like the one in Miscellaneous Symbols that lists each symbol's "Official Name", "Glyph", "Unicode", "HTML", and "Common meaning". "👾" could be included as an entry in the table that says its official name is "ALIEN MONSTER". This Unicode.org page for "👾" and this Softpedia article can be used as sources to verify the material. If this table is created and "👾" is redirected to its entry in the table, I believe that an RfD would support retention.

  As Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs does not have such a table for now, I'd recommend that Neko-chan ( talk · contribs) create one, and then start a new DRV nomination.

  Cunard ( talk) 00:30, 1 March 2021 (UTC) reply

• Allow recreation per Cunard. Redirects are cheap, and this would meet with the principle of least astonishment. Stifle ( talk) 11:59, 1 March 2021 (UTC) reply