Inputting by hand (or maybe with a script - who cares anyway?) random Unicode characters to show that rich text is actually possible is the opposite of "smart" in a discussion between reasonable adults.

Yep, that was me that time as well.

> Inputting by hand (or maybe with a script

I did it by hand. There are websites to do this, but I’m not interested in doing this for any regular purpose, so I don’t think I have them saved. Besides, it’s more interesting to do it manually; you learn things about how Unicode works if you involve yourself in the low-level details once in a while.

> the opposite of "smart" in a discussion between reasonable adults.

Or maybe it’s humorous? You know, fun?

Fun?!? On my HackerNews?!?

Burn the heretic!

Most people are unaware that Unicode has that kind of character and even fewer people know what it does to screen readers.

The difference between showing off knowledge and trying to be show people a cool thing you know about is intent and it's REALLY hard to get that across on the internet.

Agreed, that's why I like emojis, for example. They're whimsical, and they increase a bit the bandwidth of written communication.

Alas, HN doesn't support them because of reasons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯