Smilies or no?

[Farrago]

If one was role playing, then smilies or emoticons would not be acceptable, except ((out of character)). That's how I learned it.

If one was chatting in forums, however, I wouldn't consider smilies or emoticons "txt tlk" unless they were overused.

 

[Feather Kana]

Emoticons add personality to what one is saying, and I'm not trying to squint and decide what their real-life English equivalent is since the expressions speak for themselves.

So no, I do not consider them text talk.

However....

...facing a wall of them with a few words in the middle in a blatant display of overexpression is pretty awful in my opinion.