#8251 Editor support for emoji short codes
Since most people won't have memorized lots of emoji names, it would be helpful for the markdown editor to provide prompts/help for it.
One method would be with the CodeMirror hint addon. So as soon as you type : it starts showing suggestions. SimpleMDE is the package we use for markdown editors, and that is built on CodeMirror. Both of which are due for an upgrade, if that helps at all.
A button in the toolbar would be helpful too for people that don't even know that :foo: shortcode format is a thing. It could suggest some popular ones, potentially with a search for more (but not sure how easy that is). Buttons are controlled with the SimpleMDE config.