Dear Patrick and Alix, Smilies?  

You'd better SMILE
when you say that, LuciferSum...

Gads, NO!
Please leve this forum free of all the bling-bling and gewgaws common to most online forums. One of the reasons I like it here so much is that all I have to be able to do is type in the English language. I don't have to translate online texting code, select a cute cartoon to represent myself or be distracted by all those moving GIFs all over the page.
How about one just uses a simple text emoticon or indicates one's emotional intent with actual text.
I think you are all smart enough to do that aren't you? You are erudite modernists after all...(dripping sarcasm)

LOL
Nothing like posting a joke and REALLY hoping it doesnt fall flat. Glad no one was offended by that.

(:=/)...
(:=/) ...SDR
(:=D)
complicated...
I vote no to the omotcon (sp?)
My niece has a language i have yet to understand.
But, if we had a designed box like the 'da' on our upper left !
A simple design like 'pong'...
bad example here...(:=D)
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6zQMwvDJuI

pls wtf I'm roflmao lol omfg ...
pls wtf I'm roflmao lol omfg gr8!
It because most people here are over 30 that concepts are communicated reasonably well, perhaps I'm being unfair but how do generation Y communicate with subtlety? The ones I've met just drink too much and grunt at their iphones. And if you look at them the wrong way God help you.

Even if they are sometimes a...
Even if they are sometimes a useful complement to the written expression, we don't like very much emoticons. We try to avoid adding elements that would make Design Addict look like an overloaded Christmas tree.
Concerning the ? that appear sometimes instead of the " or other special characters in some of your messages: We already tried to solve this problem, without succeeding in removing it completely. Apparently it occurs when a poster does a cut and paste of a text that he wrote before with Microsoft Word. There is no problem when one writes directly in the forum's message box.
We will still try to find a final solution for this problem and we are taking note of your other suggestions for the next update. Thank you.

Actually it can't be stated enough
Thank you Patrick & Alix for being such gracious hosts.

Thanks
for the note about ? -- I was beginning to think it was something happening on my computer only. It seems that the question mark replaces either " or '.
Speaking of punctuation, one of our posters consistently uses , in place of '. Would this be correct in any language ? I'm intrigued. . .

About ? (question mark)
Patrick and Alix Thanks you very much about the ?.
Good to know.
It's true that (in my case) happen when I write it with Microsoft Word, and then copy and paste in the forum's message box.
But not in all Microsoft Word, because when I do it in the studio, no problem, but at home appears the ?.
(same version I think, that's why I thought it was the keyboard, perhaps a mix = Microsoft word + keyboard? (When I say keyboard, I mean, the place where can be choose/change the language of that)
It's true that there is no problem typing directly in the forum's message box, but in my case, that could be less understandable than a full page of ?????? for all of you. 🙂
Good to know that part is Microsoft Word, I'll try with other word processor.
Developing my own Free DA-English style.
SDR: Hua Hua Hua
In my language (Spanish) it's not used at all. Never ever. :), That's part of the answer.
In the beginning couldn't do much when those ? appears, so began to use , and ,, instead of ' and " to change them later, but if I forgot one or two, that way I thought was more understandable that ??. But later it's seems, I took the ",,freedom,," of developing my own DA-English writing style. 🙂 As DA is the place where I write English (99%). The rest 1% get used that way :). I guessed that way would unsettle a bit those respectful writers with special attention on punctuation, which I really admire them a lot. Sorry for the inconvenience for them.
I thought that you used . . . instead of ... beacuse of that.
P&A, thanks again for your patience.

Patrick and Alix are right...
emotion marks are generally silly and this forum has a certain visual quality because of the lack of these silly symbols.
In another thread, Trish showed a chair and ask where could she get it reupholstered. This brings up how nice it would be if the city, state and/or country of each person on this forum could be shown.
It's been discussed before, but knowing where the people are from are MUCH more significant than being able to show a smiley face, by gum.
I'm in Minneapolis, MN USA

I should
say, first, that I admire those willing to wrestle with English in order to communicate on international fora like DA. Fora is plural of forum ? I never studied Latin, though some of my contemporaries did, fifty years ago, in high school. I guess I wish my parents had insisted on it, though it was never mentioned. My chosen language study was French, but, aside from virtually perfect pronunciation, I'm not fluent in that lovely tongue.
Gustavo completely and efficiently explains his various usages, here. I admire him more every day. I suppose if I went back to his earliest posts I'd find the nefarious question marks; the choice of commas as a substitute makes perfect sense, now.
My spaced ellipses (. . .) just looked better to me at the beginning; it's become a habit.
Truth, accepted, results naturally in humility. Highly recommended. Maybe our political leaders could give it a try ?

.
My English is pretty awful, compared to an Evelyn Waugh paragraph which I've read over and over again, it's the most perfectly constructed thing you could imagine. I'll try and find it.
When I was a little younger studying horticulture and before email my spelling was quite good, all the taxonomy really helped then and still does now, with a broad range of subjects.
The only other language I've grown up with is Afrikaans, which is truly hideous.

Evolution of personal and collective DA styles.
... . . . ... . . . ... . . . ... . . . ... . . .
It's seems I'm not the only one that been evolving a "personal" style! 🙂
SDR, About that 3 spaced points-ellipses styles, I love it!. So much, that if you want to check I added to my own about 2 weeks ago. In part because the aforementioned thing. Thanks!
It's also interesting to me to see how it have been evolving the writing style (graphically and written/literature's) on each contributor and the "collective" one.
Ohhh, I,m not going to begin a DA Collective Anthropology Writing style now.
Thanking each contributor and following each evolution and mutations...
But very interesting!
Mmm, maybe in the future...
Heath:
You said "I've grown up with is Afrikaans, which is truly hideous."
Really sounds like this?, hideous sounded hideous. :)Intrigued, I searched "Afrikaans", and learned it,s a mix of dutch+English+African, it seems would sound interesting!.
Here in Buenos Aires, people say that the Spanish we speak "Español Rioplatense" (from River Plate=Montevideo-Bs.As.) is Spanish with Italian accent (because immigration).
I'm afraid will sound more hideous to more than one! 🙂 🙂
And other little thing, You said: "It because most people here are over 30 that concepts are communicated reasonably well", you mean old?, o l d ? oollldddd? and it's true! 🙂 no no please check that, I think now I'll change my vote for a positive emoticons.
Mmm Christams tree or Old O L D. 🙂
Mmm, no I'll keep that vote, because I think indeed will look as and "OLD Christmas tree". 🙂
p.s.: I tried Microsoft Word pad, but I prefer directly DA.
Now I wrote this with "Google docs", Can be used for sharing and collective writing!!
Anybody used before? I'll see when I'll post this what happen!. I tested a bit, it seems it's OK.

Check it!
"Google Docs" works better than "Microsoft Word" by now.
ps.: for a moment I thought I needed to move to Mac! 🙂

an old christmas tree, that w...
an old christmas tree, that would be rather awful, very funny though. I prefer to think we're like good cheese and better wine, improving all the time.
No reallyn Afrikaans is hideous, and Afrikaaners are even worse, its like the kkk chanting with throat cancer.