Happy 25th Birthday Smiley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mandy]

Smiley doesn't turn 25 until September but I thought I'd start the party early. 

:partytimes: :rebear4:

...emoticons (or emotive icons), the arrangements of letters and symbols that have been inserted into e-mails, message board posts, and instant messages since the fledgling days of the Internet. "Fledgling days," in this case, refers not to the mid-'90s when people were beginning to learn what AOL was, but to the early '80s, when accessing the Internet was largely limited to research universities and defense contractors.

But the Internet is changing, and typing is no longer the only way to communicate online. With the onset of new technologies that facilitate, for example, a more graphic representation of moods, tone and inference, it's arguable that there could be frowns in the emoticon's future.

After all, the phenomenon is about to turn 25--a dinosaur in Web years. The origin of the ASCII smiley face is typically traced to September 1982, when Scott Fahlman, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Computer Science, suggested that the :-) symbol be used in the subject line of an online bulletin board post to denote a humorous or non-serious topic...

full article: http://news.com.com/The+Web+smileys+mott...=nefd.lede

[BellisimaJ.]

What would online life be without smileys?? :'(

[bargainbloodhound]

This topic should be a sticky.  I'd give up my stores before I'd give up my smilies...well maybe not, but Smiley's birthday should be a sticky anyways.

[BellisimaJ.]

I'd give up my stores before I'd give up my smilies.

I don't think that's true.

But, Smiley does deserve a sticky!