@rysiek still better than those who smile like (:

@rysiek @a_breakin_glass because unobtrusiveness.

@rysiek Ü is quite a BIG mouth, small eyes, while :) is not so big, just wide. With :) proportions are better. Not to mention that Ü may look *very* different depending on the font, not quite like a smile, while :) remains recognisable.

Case in point: any Serif font will add cheeks to Ü, handwriting makes it non-smiley-like, some fonts will make the left and/or right sides bolder, and so on.

@rysiek This changed my life. ö

@rysiek @Pasty

It's not like we didn't have them since ASCII

@rysiek @rixx because your brain immediately vocalizes them. And the vocal meaning doesn't fit the smiley's meaning.

@rysiek Look at all the Germans finding serious answers to the light and nice joke. ü

@rysiek /r/de is using ü and ö quite frequently

Ü

@rysiek Because those are already taken for letters, and Ordnung muss sein.

@rysiek
Because :-) is international.

@rysiek german here.
In fact I never thought about using them, probably for the same reason you should not write FOSS code with primary-german (basically primary non-english) commentary if possible. (I'd be willing to learn esperanto, butusing english as a bridge-language seems easier).
When someone uses the wrong font it also looks shitty and they can't know which smiley was used which leadsto potential confusing situations. And a personal reason is that I think :) looks "cleaner" :D