Smiley FacesForum Smiley Etiquette: How to Use Smileys Well
The golden rule of forum smileys is simple: use them to make your tone clearer, not to replace what you actually want to say. One well-chosen smiley can stop a joke being read as an insult. Ten in a row makes a post hard to read and can annoy the people you're talking to. Here's how to get the balance right.
Why smileys matter on forums
Text strips out tone of voice. A dry comment that would get a laugh in person can come across as rude in writing. That exact problem is why the sideways :-) was proposed on a university message board in 1982, as a way to mark jokes. Forum smileys do the same job today, with more expression. A winking angel after a teasing remark tells everyone you're being playful.
Seven practical rules
1. One or two per post is usually plenty
A smiley works best as punctuation. Put it at the end of the sentence it applies to. If every line has one, none of them stand out.
2. Never use a smiley to soften a real insult
"You clearly have no idea what you're talking about :)" is still an insult. A smiley can clarify tone, but it can't cancel out the words in front of it. Readers notice, and it often makes things worse. The same goes for 🙃, which usually signals sarcasm or quiet exasperation rather than happiness (what the upside-down face means).
3. Match the smiley to the thread
A laughing smiley is perfect in an off-topic jokes thread and wrong in someone's post asking for help with a family emergency. Before posting, read the first post and a few replies to get the mood.
4. Be careful with "spectator" smileys
The popcorn smiley is hugely popular because it captures the feeling of watching an argument unfold. It's also the smiley most likely to irritate the people arguing. Use it in light-hearted threads, not in genuine disputes. Our article on the popcorn emoji meaning goes into more detail.
5. Keep image sizes small
Animated smileys are meant to sit inline with text, at roughly the height of a line or two. Large GIFs push text around, slow down pages for people on mobile data, and can be distracting. If you link a bigger animation, consider posting it once rather than repeating it.
6. Watch out for flashing and fast animation
Some animations flicker quickly or flash between bright colours. A few people find these uncomfortable to look at, and for some people with photosensitive conditions they can be a real problem. Gentle animations like a blink, a wave or a small bounce are safer choices than strobing effects.
7. Follow the board's rules
Many forums limit the number of images per post, ban hotlinking from certain sites, or only allow their own built-in smiley set. Some have a separate rule for signatures. If you're new, check the forum rules or FAQ before posting images. Moderators are usually happy to explain if you ask.
Using smileys to keep things friendly
Used well, smileys are a moderator's friend. A few patterns that work nicely:
- Welcoming new members. A cheerleader smiley on someone's first post is a warm greeting.
- Celebrating good news. Somebody finished a project or passed an exam? A celebration smiley says "well done" without a wall of text.
- Owning a mistake. If you got something wrong, a sheepish or innocent smiley shows you're not taking yourself too seriously.
- Defusing tension. A friendly smiley on a reply that disagrees politely can make it clear you're debating the point, not attacking the person.
What to avoid
- Smiley-only replies in serious discussions. They add noise without adding information.
- Spamming the same smiley across many threads. It can look like you're farming post counts.
- Huge or very long animations in signatures, where they repeat on every post you make.
- Mocking smileys aimed at a person. Laughing with someone is fine. Laughing at them is how threads get locked.
Getting smileys into your posts
Most forums let you add an image using BBCode, for example [img]...[/img], or HTML on some older boards. Our guide on how to embed a GIF in a forum post walks through each method step by step.