Smilies are great. They cheer things up most of the time. Excessive or inappropriate usage can be uncomfortable, though, but that rarely happens to me.
I'm one of the member who like to use smilies, so when I don't people will know that I'm being really serious or angry. LOL~ XD
For the most part, I do not use smilies or those text based ones like "O_O;;". I don't mind if others use them, but I don't like seeing them be littered everywhere. (Though these text ones I think are more common in chatboxes, I don't like to see them used as the only thing stated. I've seen multiple of these things posted in chatboxes and it just kills any chat going on because most people have no idea how to react to them which creates these awkward silences. Either that or it leads to those posting them getting ignored. )
I do hate it though when people put lots of smilies in their rules/important documentation. I find that makes the staff look like they have no idea what they're doing and that their rules are a joke and can be freely ignored as necessary.
I'd also like to hear your opinions on forums with default smilies from their chosen forum software?
I don't mind them but I would much rather see a custom set implanted because when you have been around for a long time you see the default sets everywhere and you start to go off them. 😛
I normally use my own style of smilies so they aren't automatically parsed after I submit my content. I've never really liked image based smilies for some reason.
=]
Well of course I use smilies , I wouldn't have a better experience on a forum without them! They're the best way to get out that expression when you say something and mean it in some way, smilies are the bomb haha!