# Emoji in tag names

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** emoji, tags
**Created:** [5월 20, 2016, 10:37오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555 "2016-05-20T10:37:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![foloex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/foloex/32/63141_2.png) [@foloex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/foloex)
#### Post date: [5월 20, 2016, 10:37오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/1 "2016-05-20T10:37:29Z")

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I’m creating a multi-language forum, there will be people from different nationalities on it. I’m thinking of using tags for showing in which language is a topic. I thought it would be more visual to use emoji to display a flag, but tags do not seem to display the emoji’s image. Instead, the name of the emoji is displayed.

Topic’s title handle the emoji well, why should’t tags do the same ?

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 20, 2016, 11:44오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/2 "2016-05-20T23:44:36Z")

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There are no plans to support Emoji in tag names.

However tag names can be full unicode (I think?), so you could use any valid Unicode character. And Unicode includes official Emoji code points.

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### Author: ![fantasticfears](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fantasticfears/32/119608_2.png) [@fantasticfears](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fantasticfears)
#### Post date: [5월 21, 2016, 5:36오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/3 "2016-05-21T05:36:14Z")

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Ruby don’t have a good Unicode processing library (no good binding to ICU). Neither Rails support it.

I would build some C extension to check the Unicode string. If you agree, I can leave an option for Unicode tags when I finished the gem.

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### Author: ![foloex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/foloex/32/63141_2.png) [@foloex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/foloex)
#### Post date: [5월 21, 2016, 12:11오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/4 "2016-05-21T12:11:23Z")

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Would it be hard to parse the tag to replace the emoji’s text by its image at display time ?

If the user has to handle the text string at sorting, searching or editing it’s not that big of an issue I think. It could always been improved later on. But displaying the emoji while displaying the topic would be great.

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### Author: ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [5월 21, 2016, 8:35오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/5 "2016-05-21T20:35:22Z")

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I think you may be making more work than need be.  
For example, this CSS adds a “heart” before the tag “css3”

```plaintext
a.discourse-tag.tag-css3::before {
  content: "\2665";
}

```

This is less than ideal because it requires hard-coding the tag’s class attribute value.  
But it is simple, works, and as long as you don’t have many tags you want to do this with shouldn’t be that much trouble to maintain.

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### Author: ![anon61128213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [2월 17, 2017, 11:23오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/6 "2017-02-17T11:23:47Z")

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Thanks for the tip with the unicode flags for tags.

These: `🇨🇳, 🇩🇪, 🇪🇸, 🇫🇷, 🇬🇧, 🇮🇹, 🇯🇵, 🇰🇷, 🇷🇺, and 🇺🇸` work and look really great as tags. (EDIT: apparently it is platform dependent, so e.g. windows users don’t see those as flags by default. ☹)

I just haven’t found out how to mention such a tag. `#🇩🇪` does nothing.

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### Author: ![anon61128213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [2월 25, 2017, 3:27오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/7 "2017-02-25T15:27:09Z")

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We at the [Fairphone Forum](https://forum.fairphone.com) decided to go ahead and start using this feature even though it’s not supported yet.  
We hope that giving you an example of a working forum using this cool feature is a better motivation to work on implementing it than just some fancy mockups.

So, please come check it out!

Here is the introduction post to flag-tags in our forum:

> **[📊 Language Tags - "Final" Vote](https://forum.fairphone.com/t/language-tags-final-vote/26403)**
>
> \#Please vote in the post marked as “solution”. ▶ Original Post ▶ Recent Edit

and here is the list of tags:

> **[Tags](https://forum.fairphone.com/tags)**
>
> Tags

###What works already:

- Contrary to my last post above in general this works with all [Regional Indicator Symbols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Indicator_Symbol).
- Like with all other tags you can now see all threads of the same language and follow or mute a language.
- So far we have been using discourse’s emojis (🇮🇹, 🇩🇪, 🇪🇸, …) in the topic title, which is by far the inferior solution. Searching for topics of the same language is a pain. Searching for “`:de:`” will show all (or better yet 50) topics that contain “`de`” in the title. Searching for “`:it:`” will yield zero results as “`it`” doesn’t count as a word.

###What doesn’t work yet:

- Not everybody can see (all of) these flags.
- The post I linked above includes a guide to make it work on almost all computers and Android phones, but a way to let every user see the flags without having to install an emoji font would be great.
- If you don’t see the flags you see `🇩 🇪, 🇫 🇷, 🇳 🇱, 🇮 🇹, 🇪 🇸...` which is usually also quite clear.
- but still we decided to keep using the flags in the topic title as well (for now).
- You can’t easily **#mention** an emoji-tag, you’ll have to enter e.g. `[🇬🇧](https://forum.fairphone.com/tags/%F0%9F%87%AC%F0%9F%87%A7)`
- You can’t tag a topic without having to copy-paste the flag unless it’s in the top 5 tags.
- (Minor issue): Even if you copy paste the flag you get a suggestion as though the tag was never used before. So without the “(x17)”.  
This is only an issue if you e.g. copied the flag of Clipperton Island `🇨🇵` instead of France `🇫🇷` and you don’t see that you are creating a new tag instead of tagging the topic as french (happened to me).
- PS: Searching for flag-tags also doesn’t work yet. It would be cool to be able to e.g. search all Italian topics on Margherita, if you’re not interested in the Spanish Margherita atm.

###So in conclusion

It’s already quite a nice feature, but if discourse starts supporting it this will be epic.

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [2월 28, 2017, 11:15오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/9 "2017-02-28T23:15:40Z")

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Wouldn’t most/all of these issues be resolved if you changed the convention from 🇳🇴 to Norwegian​🇳🇴?

That’d make them easily writable and mentionable.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2월 28, 2017, 11:33오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/10 "2017-02-28T23:33:30Z")

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I’d recommend `Norwegian-NO` rather than smushing the country and country code together. There is also the issue of which language the country name is in. Absolute, as in “english for all” or, relative as in “how each country spells their own name in their own native language”.

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### Author: ![anon61128213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [3월 1, 2017, 11:02오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/11 "2017-03-01T11:02:47Z")

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> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> Wouldn’t most/all of these issues be resolved if you changed the convention from 🇳🇴 to Norwegian​🇳🇴?

I just tested:

> **[Playground: Features of this forum](https://forum.fairphone.com/t/playground-features-of-this-forum/28/90?u=paulkreuzer)**
>
> Test: #norwegian-🇳🇴::tag Background: https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/9?u=paulakreuzer

Unfortunately only 2 of the 4 issues are solved by that. Tagging topics is now easier, everybody can see at least the text if not the flag, searching still doesn’t work, #mentioning results in a non-clickable #norwegian-🇳🇴::tag.

PS: I made a poll and our forum population voted to keep the flag-tag without text and keep the emoji in the topic title for now so everybody can see it - until emoji tags are officially supported. 🙂

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [3월 31, 2017, 10:56오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/13 "2017-03-31T22:56:47Z")

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Related Basecamp 3 feature, I think emoji → tag is the closest analog we have

> **[New in Basecamp 3: Message Types](https://signalvnoise.com/svn3/new-in-basecamp-3-message-types/)**
>
> One of the best ways to improve a product is to look at hacks and workarounds your customers have come up with, understand the why behind the how, and then figure out how to turn those little innov…

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [4월 19, 2017, 3:27오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/14 "2017-04-19T15:27:08Z")

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Since we already supporting semicolon `:` in tag names I am able to create a new tag named `:thinking:` which is equal to 🤔 emoji. Then I explored and found that emoji support in tags is easily doable by editing single line of code. And it is just working on my localhost as below

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/4/2/42267c9ce5a24b35dbe2fb71f871245fe478a410.png)

If you are welcome this in core then I will create PR. Else I can share it as custom theme.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [4월 19, 2017, 3:47오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/15 "2017-04-19T15:47:12Z")

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It would need to be emoji + text, the emoji of a tag would have to be defined properly in the tag model

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [4월 19, 2017, 3:55오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/16 "2017-04-19T15:55:41Z")

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It is supporting emoji + text option if `-` symbol used between normal and emoji texts like `text-:emoji:` or `:emoji:-text`.

But it is not working for underscore `_` symbol.

> [@sam](#):
>
> the emoji of a tag would have to be defined properly in the tag model

As a dedicated column of the table? like `tag.emoji`

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [4월 19, 2017, 4:04오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/17 "2017-04-19T16:04:19Z")

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probably… cause if this stuff is not separated properly stuff can get very messy:

This slug is super ugly:

`/tags/:email:-email`

API ends up returning a bit of a mess.

And does anyone really need the tag ?

> 🕰time 🏈 17

Also, escalating this to a proper data structure allows you more flexibility with rendering in the topic list. Eg: pull up tag emoji before title and leave tag without emoji in the tag list.

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### Author: ![anon61128213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [6월 16, 2017, 8:20오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/18 "2017-06-16T08:20:48Z")

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@vinothkannans is it possibe to mention a tag (`#:thinking:`) with your method?

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [6월 16, 2017, 8:23오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/19 "2017-06-16T08:23:07Z")

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`:thinking:` is possible. I am not sure about `#:thinking:`.

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### Author: ![anon61128213](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [6월 23, 2017, 6:00오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/20 "2017-06-23T06:00:13Z")

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Well `:thinking:` just renders to 🤔 and it’s not a link to all topics with that tag. If you mention a normal tag like `#emoji::tag` you get a link you can click → #emoji. If I try the same with a tag with an emoji inside it looks e.g. like this `#norwegian-🇳🇴::tag` and it can’t be clicked.

That’s the one feature I’m looking for that’s still missing in regards to emoji tags.

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### Author: ![sunjam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sunjam/32/175682_2.png) [@sunjam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sunjam)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2023, 5:54오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/21 "2023-11-02T05:54:02Z")

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> [@anon61128213](#):
>
> 이것들: `🇨🇳, 🇩🇪, 🇪🇸, 🇫🇷, 🇬🇧, 🇮🇹, 🇯🇵, 🇰🇷, 🇷🇺, 그리고 🇺🇸`은 태그로 작동하며 정말 멋져 보입니다. (편집: Apparently 플랫폼에 따라 다르므로, 예를 들어 Windows 사용자는 기본적으로 이들을 국기로 보지 않습니다. ☹)

그러면, 이러한 것 중 하나를 독립된 태그로 실제로 어떻게 만드는 것일까요? 여러분의 포럼에서 보여지는 모습이 정말 좋습니다.

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### Author: ![jrgong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jrgong](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jrgong)
#### Post date: [6월 24, 2024, 1:09오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555/22 "2024-06-24T13:09:30Z")

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누군가 태그 이름에 `%` 같은 문자를 추가할 수 있었나요? 슬러그에는 필요 없지만, 포럼에 표시되는 태그 이름에 그런 문자를 넣을 수 있으면 좋겠습니다.

[다음 페이지](https://meta.discourse.org/t/emoji-in-tag-names/44555.md?page=2)
