2.4  SMILEYS
 
 
When you're involved in an online discussion, you can't see the smiles or 
shrugs that the other person might make in a live conversation to show 
he's only kidding.  But online, there's no body language. So what you 
might think is funny, somebody else might take as an insult.  To try to 
keep such misunderstandings from erupting into bitter disputes, we have 
smileys.  Tilt your head to the left and look at the following sideways. 
:-).  Or simply :).  This is your basic "smiley." Use it to indicate 
people should not take that comment you just made as seriously as they 
might otherwise.  You make a smiley by typing a colon, a hyphen and a 
right parenthetical bracket. Some people prefer using the word "grin," 
usually in this form: 
 
     <grin>  
 
Sometimes, though, you'll see it as *grin* or even just  for short. 
 
Some other smileys include: 
 
     ;-)      Wink; 
     :-(      Frown; 
     :-O      Surprise; 
     8-)      Wearing glasses; 
     =|:-)=   Abe Lincoln. 
    
OK, so maybe the last two are a little bogus :-).