Emoticon
An emoticon, or smiley, is one of those little pictures of faces that people randomly distribute throughout their posts on message boards. (It can also refer to those little combinations of symbols like |>P-{)? that are supposed to look like a pirate or something, but nobody gives a damn about that meaning.)
The most often-used emoticons at Sonic Eats Rings are the "eMCoticons," a set of emoticons based on sprite depictions of (mostly) prominent SER members. The majority of eMCoticons were created by Andrusi, either from scratch or from people's own personal sprites, for his own personal use and to be potentially added to The Moogle Cavern's message board (thus "MC"). In its earliest form the set merely depicted the board's moderation staff, but it quickly grew into "anyone whose sprites Andrusi had on hand when he decided he needed a new one." When the decision was made to integrate them into SER, four new eMCoticons not made by Andrusi (:moghead:, :love:, :pissed:, and :pf:) were added to the set.
SER has a wide variety of other emoticons available, including a more standard set of "yellow face smilies," Sonic the Hedgehog characters (including Chaos Emeralds and a ring), Pac-Man characters, directional arrows, and other miscellaneous images.
You would think that would be enough for anyone, but some members have been known to use "unofficial" emoticons--either from other sources or self-made--in their posts. (Andrusi and Donnyku, for instance, each have their own distinct sets, both of which are based on Pretty Cure. Apparently Andrusi is just too elitist to use the same emoticons as the common people, having twice made his own sets. And before you think that's intended as a flame, consider that he wrote it himself.)
eMCoticon listing
:shocked: Depicts Andrusi, surprised and probably frightened by some revelation. The oldest eMCoticon still in use.
:smile: Depicts Kulock, pleased. Actually the second version--the original was based on an outdated sprite which Kulock wanted removed from circulation.
:sad: Depicts H Hog, crying.
:ehehe: Depicts CrazyMrLeo, displaying an anime-esque sweatdrop.
:bored: Depicts Sz, uninterested.
:wink: Depicts Eric, or more accurately TLoB, winking.
:mad: Depicts Squiggles, angry. Oddly enough, this was reportedly the first ever Squiggles sprite.
:evilgrin: Depicts Rob (well, Jinnai) laughing manically. Has its roots in a Jinnai sprite that held the same pose, though this version is smaller.
:weird: Depicts Matrixx, completely confused. Seems to be the most-used eMCoticon. What that says about SERfers is anyone's guess.
:twisted: Depicts Mr. Torture.
:cool: Depicts DiscoChao, being cool.
:shot!: Depicts Tenniru, about to be shot (similar in purpose to typing "::shot::"). Originally used a lighter, slightly orange color for the crosshairs, in an attempt to get better contrast, but this reportedly made him look more like he was wearing a crown.
:doher: Depicts Zodberg (well, NeroMan) immediately before or after saying "I'd do her."
:razz: Depicts Jamie Lee (well, Jamie SwiftRunner), sticking her tongue out. Like :smile:, this eMCoticon has been updated to take into account a more modern sprite.
:pirate: Depicts Sabator, dressed as a pirate.
:roll: Depicts Bruce the Squire, rolling his eyes.
:um: Depicts Squishidiboo, unsure.
:bendy: Depicts the Bendy Straw, created by and commonly associated with Keith Stack.
:meh: Depicts GagaMan, ambivalent.
:xd: Depicts Space, laughing.
:argh: Depicts Sofox, frustrated.
:yes: Depicts Blaze Hedgehog, triumphant.
:no: Depicts SonKnuck, going "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
:innocent: Depicts Ink, completely trustworthy.
:love: Depicts Ruby, in love. The first eMCoticon that Andrusi did not contribute to in any way.
:pissed: Depicts Smindas (well, Knux9), quite angry.
:moghead: Depicts a little moogle head, commonly associated with cake.
:pf: Depicts Alicia R, rather distressed.
