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What are smileys?

The so called smileys are more correctly named emoticons. While you may thinks that's just stupid crap for little children, it's not! They do have a very important meaning, since they show you what emotions somebody had while writing a line. This is not just some fun game, it can be really important to understand a post correctly.

Let's say somebody says "Wow, you really ARE a bastard", how was it meant? Ironically, as between friends or as insult? You may guess that, but you may as well not. Now in case it was ironically the author may have placed an emoticon there to indicate this to you, so you don't have to get mad, you see? There is a difference how somebody says something depending on cadence, but let's first show you what emoticons exist before continuing with that. A complete list would kill this page (and can as always be found in the link section), here is just what you are supposed to know.

There are two kinds of smileys, the classical ones and the Japanese ones. The classic ones can be recognized if you lay your head on your left shoulder (turning it 90 degrees), the Japanese ones can be recognized without that. Which ones you use is up to you, I prefer the Japanese ones. Recognizing means that you see those chars are drawing a face that is laughing, whining or shows some other kind of emotion (that's where the name emoticons comes from). If you are creative enough, you may recognize emoticons when you see them for the first time in your live, just try to guess what they may mean. Not all smileys exist in both forms.

Combining two of them is possible. Like ;-P , being ironic and sticking out your tongue or >>>:->>> being very evil. Also you can make even cuter Japanese one by replacing the mouth: (^_^) smile, (^.^) cute smile, (^^) very cute smile or replace the eye: (^_-) winking, (^.-) cuter winking, (^.~) very cute winking. Traditionally women use the cuter forms (they don't show teeth when smiling) while men use the normal ones, but who said men can't look cute ^.~

Quick tip:
You can use short-term-smileys. In case of classic ones you leave out the nose like ;) , :) , :P -also looks cuter-, in case of Japanese ones you leave out the brackets (usually done by most posters). There is no rule where to place smileys, but I would suggest to place them at the end of a sentence or right before you start one, so people know to what this smiley is referring to.

Now let's check what this is good for. I'm going to quote the same sentence here several times, but every time it has another meaning and you can figure out the meaning by looking at the smiley.

"I really hate it when that happens ^_~"
Person means it ironically, don't take it seriously.

"I really hate it when that happens -.-;;"
Person feels down because of that, may know it from experience. It's not meant ironically here.

"I really hate it when that happens >.<"
Person is sharing sympathy with you, feeling somehow sorry for you.

"I really hate it when that happens ;_;"
Person is crying because of this, so person is either very sorry for you or may already have made very bad experiences with that in the past.

"I really hate it when that happens ^_^"
Person does not mean it ironically, but rather thinks this is a funny incident.

"I really hate it when that happens Z_Z"
Person is very angry because of this.

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