Why isn't the external link symbol in Unicode? (2018)
I find myself agreeing with the rejection. As much as I dislike the ridiculous amount of emojis in Unicode, and their increasingly widespread use, they do fit plain text communication, whereas an "external link" symbol does not. My heuristic is something I'll call SMS sniff test: would it make sense to type that symbol into a text message? If it wouldn't, then it doesn't belong in Unicode."External link" symbol tells you, "that last bit of differently-formatted text is an active element in this application, leading to an outside resource". It's not something that makes sense in plain text, because any external link in a plain text message is both visible and obviously a link.Elsewhere in the thread someone mentioned the play/pause/stop symbols from cassette recorders/VCRs. But those have been used culturally as symbols denoting starting, pausing and stopping for decades now, so they're an idea communication tool that makes sense in plain text, and thus pass the SMS sniff test.(Note that I'm not sure if all symbols in Unicode actually pass the SMS sniff test. I suppose the best option for those wanting "external link" symbol to be included would be to resubmit it as the DOUBLE ARROW POINTING TOP RIGHT OUT OF SQUARE symbol, or something like that.)