To add some information that people like Noah may not be aware of: This email list is an open, public list for arbitrary discussions about Unicode and software internationalization. It is *not* an email list for consortium business—the vast majority of the people on it are *not* members of the Unicode consortium, and are simply expressing their opinions on a particular topic, as individuals. Members of the consortium are *not* necessarily active on this list. Those who are do *not* necessarily engage in every topic.
It can be a useful place to talk about possible proposals, but any opinions provided here (or that appear in random blogs, news articles, or change.org petitions) are *not* taken into account by the consortium. Anyone wanting a proposal to be considered *should* submit it via http://unicode.org/reporting.html. Those submissions *are* considered by the relevant technical body in the consortium. People proposing new *emoji* characters *should* read http://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Selection_Factors beforehand, and follow the guidelines there. Proposals about emoji are directed to the emoji subcommittee, which meets weekly. It makes recommendations to the UTC, which meets quarterly.
