Some background
By emoji, I mean these: http://www.emoji-cheat-sheet.com/
By emoticons, I mean the standard :), :P, ;) etc.
These emoticons or emoji will be available to users in things like text areas for posting comments and writing blog posts.
Context
I am considering cases where we provide a rich text editor and the user can select the appropriate emoji/emoticon from a drop down.
The second approach is a plain text area where users will need to type in :) or :smile: and an autocomplete dropdown like github's: 
Question
Emojis provide a lot of images which does add to the fun factor. However, from my personal experience, I have always found them hard to use (because I need to remember all the codes :smile:, :stuck_out_tongue: etc). The fact that someone has created cheat sheet means that I am not the only one having this problem. Having to use something like :smile: over :) provides more friction too.
In addition, because I can't be bothered loading up the cheat sheet most of the time, I just end up using the same 3 or 4 emojis in my posts and comments.
Is there any value in using emojis over the classical emoticons?
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