Sometimes it's not at all hard to read between the written lines. And sometimes you only see what you want to believe in another's face. You started this thread as a discussion of how to apply emoticons in written text. Of course if we were talking face to face it would be different. Given that we are communicating with only the written word to convey our thoughts and emotions, we are faced with the difficulty of expressing emotion in the written word. What would clearly be a tongue-in-cheek quip in person can come across quite dry and ill-meaning in written text.

In order to enjoy this forum to it's potential, assuming we're friends here, we must try not to take each other too seriously, and endeavor to express that which we know is part of what we are saying, when we suspect it's not conveyed by the words themselves. That is the purpose of the emoticon. Of course it can be abused or misused, or be an outright lie. You just have to take it in context of who you're dealing with.