Smilies are, by the way, under the protection of the First.
Sarcasm doesn’t work very well in print.
The best smilies are softeners – they take the edge off of the overly harsh written word. Smacky was an improvement over Embarrassed. Mr. Dubious is milder than Rollyeyes. Some years back I created :WellOk: , an alternative to winky:
http://wm55.inbox.com/thumbs/2c_130b92_3bbb2b38_oG.gif.thumb
I tried to make it a little less cutesy. It would be used to convey a friendly but less-than-hilarious tone. I haven’t worked out a good label though. :wry: and :bemused: are 2 alternatives.
Emoticons are challenging to design. ::Shakes head:: might be a good candidate. Along the same lines, it might be easier to convey :: pensive ::.
::Lick Lips:: is pointless IMHO: it doesn’t soften and the idea can be adequately communicated in words.
For your consideration, I submit this collection of anime emoticons: http://mypages.iit.edu/~jfas/articles/animeemoticons.html
Unlike the Western versions, they do not require readers to tilt their heads sideways.
_
If The Powers That Be would enable the [IMG] tags, we could all use http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php to our little heart’s content.
Barfing smilie. That is definitely the one I need most often.
Edited – didn’t someone actually design a puking smiley?