Thanks, Jeri. Either a different server or the configuration of the bits of the system - webserver, database, whatever - have changed.

So anything that puts the actual emoticon into the typing box - special keyboards, addons, copy/paste - doesn't work: yellow sadface displays as ??

That's either a bug or Max has had enough of them (understandable).

A # code from Mr_Red's_page does work: 😀 displays as 😀

The difference is that those are all ASCII characters.