People often show "ascii pictures" that aren't ascii. Here's an example of one such picture and what it looked like to different people. Of the six versions below only one saw it as the artist intended. If you stick to ascii this sort of thing doesn't happen.

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NOT_ascii1.gif

NOT_ascii2.gif

NOT_ascii3.gif

NOT_ascii4.gif

NOT_ascii5.gif

NOT_ascii6.gif