In former times, I ignored smilies, thinking them to be throwaway attachments to a chunk of prose. Just last week on email, I created a kind of picture page of words and symbols from nature, travel, activities etc. I never knew that so many options are available on hotmail.
It was fun making it visually appealing for the receiver.

It's been 5 days now since I sent the email.

Maybe they only check their emails once a week or they've been passed on to their grand children to read.

Also, it gives people like Dave a visual clue to any underlying emotion. An

,

or a

are like sign posts to the implied emotion in a comment. Many posters favour

or

.
Dave didn't fall for the Grundy ACL taunt in the VFL thread. He knew bullshit there when he saw it. That was actually an interesting thread to read, though I was unable to participate because of my ban. What's humour, what's acceptable humour versus insult or transgressions of rules? People were getting a bit unhappy with each other, but when finally viewed in context,
the joke didn't seem too outrageous.