Emoticons
From NLSC Wiki
Emoticons (also known as "smilies" or "smileys") are small graphics used to convey emotions in forum posts or identify the tone of a post, particularly when the poster wishes to indicate that they are joking or using sarcasm. Graphical emoticons are derived from the practice of forming different expressions with ASCII text (such as :) and :( to represent happiness and sadness respectively) but now often include other images such as a thumbs up and thumbs down gesture to display approval or disapproval as well as other expressions that can be used to indicate the mood or context of a post.
