I find them useful. On this page, for example, they are the equivalent of SVG icons.
This allowed me to rapidly scroll to the bottom of the page and parse the topics instantly in my head. Especially since they had a "legend" at the beginning in the overview section.
It's not as if they add :) and :P everywhere. They simply made the choice to skip custom icons that every single sites out there use and instead use a common set of icons (emojis).
As more and more apps and service use those, this make parsing those page very quick. I know that if I see a "globe with meridians" emoji, it's going to be about the internet, etc. That way, you don't have to learn a new set of icons for every site you go to.
This allowed me to rapidly scroll to the bottom of the page and parse the topics instantly in my head. Especially since they had a "legend" at the beginning in the overview section.
It's not as if they add :) and :P everywhere. They simply made the choice to skip custom icons that every single sites out there use and instead use a common set of icons (emojis).
As more and more apps and service use those, this make parsing those page very quick. I know that if I see a "globe with meridians" emoji, it's going to be about the internet, etc. That way, you don't have to learn a new set of icons for every site you go to.