Interesting discussion on the introduction of the smiley. "In some cases, the participants used the visual representation of writing to achieve the spontaneity

Interesting discussion on the introduction of the smiley. "In some cases, the participants used the visual representation of writing to achieve the spontaneity and humor more characteristic of speech. For example, the graphic of a sideways smiley face ":-)" was used to indicate that something was to be taken as a joke. According to The New Hacker's Dictionary (Raymond, 1991) and to our interviews, one of the key participants in the CL group had introduced this device a year or two earlier on an electronic bulletin board system."