Quote:McG has a practical solution here. I do think the moderator should post an ultimatum though that nobody may be taken seriously if the joke smiley is used.
Boy, that would have the potential to get abused.
I like emoticons just to really emphasis something in the same way when someone uses an exclamation point or uses bold (or something other than make a different between authors)
I guess what I am trying to say is that what a person is trying to convey don't come across without some kind of label or icon to identify it then maybe other words should be used, or maybe the reader is just slow on the uptake. (like me I don't get a lot of jokes whether they have a picture telling me it is a joke or not)