A lot of things contributed to why most people no longer talk about custom smileys. There have been a massive shift in users preference. As a result of this, custom smileys were relegated to the background. Also, the standardization of emojis and how they have been made to be cross-platform compatibile gave it a big edge over custom smileys that are platform specific.
Agreed! Social media platforms are to be blamed for this decline in the use of forums and that's what indirectly affected and reduced how much those custom smilieys are used.
I always remember it was crazy how popular smileys were years ago with so many different smilies to choose from. Nowadays I barely see them mentioned and even struggle to find them anymore when I search for them.
I can't say I have ever attempted to create my own but if I knew how, it would be something I would love to give a try.
Yeah, that's very correct. The market and most of the clients who used to need it have already moved on from them. This is why most designers no longer pay attention to it because it's going to be like a waste of time.