I can see the point AP is making, but in my mind smilies have emotipros and emoticons.

The comic nature of smilies Husar mentions takes some seriousness away from serious discussion, but I'd rather the meaning of my words be made clear via the internet body language of emoticons than chance a misinterpretation (always in the worst way it seems). AP, try concetrating more on the meaning of the emoticon than the actual picture and visualize yourself doing it in a face to face discussion.

As for over using trying looking for subtle variations on it base on the discussion context. Some possible alternatives: