This heavily relates to SerenityOS.

Yakshaving refers to doing work that seems pointless but is necessary to achieve a goal later down the line. In the SerenityOS developer community on Discord, yakshaving is pretty prevalent (after all, building a new operating system requires a bunch of seemingly pointless gruntwork). Yak kind of became synonymous with just "the thing that I'm working on" or "the Serenity-intenal project I have". Therefore, the entire yak thing got out of hand and quite quickly, the Unicode bison emoji (the closest thing to a yak) wasn't enough anymore. So people created more yak emojis. And more yak emojis. And more yak emojis...

Note that most of this is based on my personal observations, and while I can remember about half of these being created, I'll most certainly be wrong in how they are used in one place or another. Order is alphabetical.

A trophy-like shiny yak, for giving out awards when someone shaved a difficult yak.

Created by Andreas on October 3rd, 2021. Reason: In response to (probably) some bug fix description, he wrote "if it works, that's a golden yak for you". Apparently it did work, because shortly after that, he posted the newly-created :goldyak:. The details here are a bit fuzzy, see this message.

This one's a hairy yak to shave. Used for particularly difficult/cumbersome/long-winded problems.

Created by sin-ack on August 24th, 2021. Reason: Andreas requested a "particularly hairy yak" (first message in the chain).

Shave incoming. Used for when you're about to solve/currently solving a problem. Or if you noticed a problem and want to solve it right now.

Created by sin-ack on July 17th, 2021. Reason: requested by Andreas. Also relevant: the associated meme.

Hacker terminal or coding-themed yak, for all your hacker needs. Used in conjunction with Terminal or pop culture hacker-related things. Also used as a ninja yak when something ninja-related comes up.

Created by sin-ack on June 6th, 2021. Reason: symbols for the bot's LibJS test262 runner status. Here, it is used for all the tests that caused a runner exception. Starting with this message, and with encouragement by networkException a conversation commenced that led to the creation of custom emojis for all the test runner results. These emojis will be referred to here as the neoyak group.

This yak is having a party, compare to the default (i.e. Unicode) 🥳 emoji.

Created by Andreas on October 21st, 2021. Reason: celebration of the :yakking: emoji (see below).

(Note to the RFC editor: Insert an SCP joke here.)

Created by Linus on October 9th, 2021. Reason: After discussing the :goldyak: origins (see above) with Linus' blacked-out screenshot, Sam asked ":reyakted: emote wen?" and Linus promptly created it.

A completely shaved or even naked yak. The ultimate endpoint in the yakshaving sequence.

Created by sin-ack on December 13th, 2021. Reason: While he was working on yakmail (see below), he apparently deleted the entire hair, creating shavedyak accidentally. Linus was quick to point out that "This is cursed, I'd be happy to add it as :shavedyak:".

When one of your yaks is really old or just has been sitting around for a long time.

Created by sin-ack on June 6th, 2021. Reason: symbols for the bot's LibJS test262 runner status, part of the neoyak group. Here, it is used for all the tests that timed out. See this message.

Don't wake the yak. A general sleep emoji.

Created by sin-ack on July 30th, 2021. Reason: unknown. First version's message.

A christmas-themed yak, partially inspired by the fact that many people add a santa hat to their avatar in December.

Created by Andreas before December 1st, 2021. Reason: probably the above, or the question for a "SerenityOS Winter Holiday Theme". This message is the first to include xmasyak as a reaction.

A yak just baiting you to be shaved. Serenity's version of the nerd snipe.

Created by Andreas on August 7th, 2021. Reason: Andrew commented "don't yak bait me I'm trying to work on the build system lol" (private channel). The similarity to the nerd snipe was first mentioned by networkException a couple of days later (this message).

A blushing yak emote like the Unicode 😊.

Creator and creation date unknown; this is the first message containing it.

That's smart. Comparable use to the 5Head emoji.

Created by Andreas on August 14th, 2021. Reason: unknown.

There's a yak, that leads to another yak, that leads to another yak, ... and so on.

Created by Mustafa on September 13th, 2021. Reason: A discussion about blockchain and microkernels (don't ask).

A yak in the style of IKEA, the infamous Swedish furniture company that has come to kind of (ironically and unironically) represent Sweden internationally. A reference to the fact that Andreas is Swedish.

Created by Linus on September 17th, 2021. Reason: In the discussion that ensued from the announcement of :yakid2: (see below), Sam mentioned that the emoji looked like "Björn, the yak from Ikea", to which Andreas responded "Yakea*" and during a chain of Yak-Ikea-related jokes, Linus created the emoji.

Something just blew up/went wrong, or you found a fun bug. Can also be used as a "This is fine!" analog.

Created by Andreas on July 1st, 2021. Reason: Brian requested a "Yak/Buggie wrapped in a warm blanket sipping Earl Grey in front of a fire emoji" and Andreas made yakfire instead because it wouldn't be as complicated. "Interpretation left to the viewer".

Generic confusion emoji.

Created by sin-ack on June 8th, 2021. Reason: In response to an admittedly weird comment by Ali, sin-ack used the non-existing catdogconfused, to which Andreas responded with the then-non-existing yakfused. This was promptly created by sin-ack.

oh god where do I start ACID2 is a popular test page that tests the compliance of a web browser, mainly CSS. The test is set up in such a way that only when the browser is (almost) compliant, a perfect smiley face will appear; otherwise, elements of the face are shifted, wrongly sized etc. For some time now, an ACID2 emoji :acid2:has existed on the server, demonstrating Browser's current compliance level. As to be expected, it still looks pretty bad:

Yakid2 is then just a yak emoji in the vein of the ACID2 emoji.

Created by Andreas before September 17th, 2021. Reason: Unknown. First mentioned publicly by Linus here.

A musical yak. "For when you're chasing a yak around all day and getting nowhere."

Created by Sam Atkins on August 18th, 2021. Reason: the aforementioned purpose.

Created by networkException on October 21th, 2021. Reason: sin-ack welcomed Andreas back with "welcome back king". Andreas responded with "right back at you yak king" which sin-ack responded to with "🦬 👑".

Delicious, approved by yak. Used as a replacement for the chef kiss emoji (which also exists on the server), in particular when relating to code.

Created by Andreas on September 3rd, 2021. Reason: a couple of days earlier, Brian noted "(I think we need :yakkiss:)".

Since Serenity has an e-mail client, it's only logical that there's a mail-themed yak.

Created by sin-ack on December 13th 2021. Reason: After a lengthy unrelated discussion, Andreas pointed out that "that sounds like the building blocks of blackmail", to which GMTA responded ":yakmail:" and sin-ack created the emoji.

Some people just attract yaks left and right. Like a yak magnet.

Created by Andreas on September 8th, 2021. Reason: unknown. Probably someone attracting yet another yak.

You just managed to finish work on something. One yak is off the stack!

Created by sin-ack on June 27th, 2021. Reason: unknown (this message). They first mentioned the idea on June 14th here.

A pun on Stack Overflow, obviously. When the yak stack gets too large.

Created by Andreas on June 17th, 2021. Reason: Brian requested "We need agni to make a yakoverflow icon, like the stack overflow logo :^)" (private channel).

This yak was @mentioned. Used for when you get pinged by people.

Created by Linus on September 30th, 2021. Reason: "inspired by none other than yourself [sin-ack]".

You found a problem you want to work on. There's a new yak for your stack!

Created by Andreas on June 14th, 2021. Reason: in response to Lubrsi saying "aaaaaaaaand our parser is too non-spec-compliant for that workaround".

Yak angry. General angry emoji.

Created by Andreas on September 11th, 2021. Reason: Ali raging about JS stuff (reeeeeeeeee).

A sad yak emoji similar to the Unicode 😢.

Creator unknown; created before December 14th 2021. See this message.

A combination of yak shaving and bikeshedding. The latter refers to procrastination or investing time into unimportant issues (as opposed to yakshaving, where time is invested into only seemingly unimportant issues). The emoji can be used when the distinction is not exactly clear.

Created by Andreas on July 18th, 2021. Reason: unknown.

Serenity's shrug emoji. People have mentioned that it looks kind of creepy.

Created by sin-ack on July 31st, 2021. Reason: Andreas responded to their use of a shrug emoji with the then-non-existent yakshrug, which resulted in the creation of the emoji.

This yak was just split up. Used when things go wrong in general, or if the yak just got deeper.

Created by sin-ack on June 6th, 2021. Reason: symbols for the bot's LibJS test262 runner status, part of the neoyak group. Here, it is used for all the tests that encounter a harness error. See this message.

Yak go boom. Similar in use to yakslice, used when things go wrong. Especially for crashes and the likes.

Created by sin-ack on June 6th, 2021: Reason: symbols for the bot's LibJS test262 runner status, part of the neoyak group. Here, it is used for all the tests that encounter a (regular) error. See this message.

Refers to the stuff you want to do in Serenity, your to-do list etc. Used similar to yakoverflow, just in general when referencing all of the many things that are to be done.

Created by Andreas on June 17th, 2021. Reason: unknown. Various people used the term "yakstack" beforehand.

Baby steps, but involving yaks.

Alternate meaning: There's a yak hiding here. When something seems to lead to a shaveable yak, but you currently only see its traces.

Created by Andreas on September 11th, 2021. Reason: Checking all VERIFY()s in the Kernel is not a one-man job. Little by little - :yaksteps:!

A box of hair. Used for the most difficult/cumbersome/long-winded problems.

Created by sin-ack on August 24th, 2021 together with hairyak.

Serenity's thonk emoji, for when something is very strange/interesting.

Created by Andreas on August 19th, 2021. Reason: unknown. The idea was previously mentioned by him on June 8th, 2021 here.

Created by Andreas on September 9th, 2021. Reason: It's that time of the year again - Hacktoberfest is back (very soon)!

Discord tags in brackets.

• sin-ack (@Agni#5047)
• Sam Atkins (@AtkinsSJ#8644)
• Andreas Kling (@awesomekling#1985)
• Brian Gianforcaro (@bgianf#0001)
• Ali Muhammadpur (@CxByte_#0373)
• Lubrsi (@Lubrsi#5588)
• networkException (@networkException#0001)
• Andrew Kaster (@Rambo#6840)
• Linus Groh (@linusg#0001)
• GMTA (@GMTA#9448)