right on

Thank you jerzee.

Should I use some more colloquial slang and misspelling to ease everyones egos?

people don't read dictionaries to have a diverse vocabulary, they just read.

Why all the defensive attacks when someone used good grammar and coherent sentence structure?

"them" refers to the topic of discussion. I mis-wrote in the previous post.

Like I said several times, I take communication seriously - especially when words are the only means to do so in an online community - and I find them to degrade the substance of a conversation. You all can interpret that as an attack on your modes of communication if you please, but its not.

I carry the same attitude here as I would in a real conversation. I try my best to express myself as accurately and sincerely as possible.

I don't have an online persona. If that means I come across as a pretentious and boring person, I don't care.

You have the right to use them, and to be grotesquely sarcastic whenever you want. I started a thread to hear opinions. And mine is that their usage diminishes communication with inane clutter. Its all fine. Everyone will do what they please.

I wanted opinions, not attitude.

Really Drew - I'm not trying to attack anyone. I was puzzled because I am not personally compelled to use them. So your sarcasm is slightly misplaced.

Thank you Lex.

Not for my sake.

I put it to any of you to try and refrain from using them for one day. Just an experiment.

Its funny how sarcasm compounds sarcasm.

Yeah, and thanks to those for taking my query seriously. I knew about half would be clever and respond with a gross over use of the expressions. Congrats.

Drew - this is a general forum, I believe theres one for politics.
But thanks for exposing my monumental waste of time and thought.

Maybe you're right. Speaking for myself, I don't feel comfortable using them. I feel as if I'm selling myself short. Maybe its the accumulated years of inane conversation associated with them through online messengers.

Why do so many out there seek to dilute the subtleties and nuances of emotion conveyed through actual language with all those silly emoticons and pixelated expressions?

When I see four yellow circle smilies lined up with eyes bulging out, it just makes me think your an idiot. Which is sad because I'm sure in reality you're not. It reminds me of middle school cheerleaders text messaging each other vacuously. But we're adults here, right?

You're all thinking I'm a pretentious jerk. Thats okay - I still want to know why you use them so much.

I certainly don't condone or promote racism in any way - but I also don't think people should be censored either.

You just used the term "retards" - thats equally offensive and alienates those of an objectively lesser mental capacity.

It doesn't matter what the context was, you should hold the same standards of negativity and censorship across the board.

Besides, those people are only hurting themselves by speaking so. Why let someones opinion upset you? Especially on a meeting/dating forum like this.

Next time you "snag a bargain" at Walmart, your supermarket, or any other retailer and think to your self "Wow, what a deal." Remember that theres an overwhelming likelihood that your fruit or toy or jacket was picked, assembled, or sewn by an illegal alien. These workers fundamentally comprise the base level of a consumer driven market. Illegal aliens are not some enemy within our lines, and you cannot declare "war" on them. Have a little perspective.

So, your trying to further victimize a family of Thai workers who are propagandized to come to America into what is essentially indentured slavedom - an indefinite monetary obligation to their importers. These workers cannot reach out to authorities concerning the poor wages they earn and human rights and labor violations because they do not speak English, and are essentially at the mercy of there importers/overseers in the US. These workers pick your vegetables and fruit and suffer from cancer due to their over exposure to pesticides - workers who have no health care and whom you strive to prevent from getting despite their role in the US economy - just so that smiley face can roll back prices and you can save a few dollars.

Look at the bigger picture. I don't have a solution - but your righteous advice certainly is missing some key points and is lacking perspective. These people are not some small sub group of our population breeding like rats and spreading disease for our children. They have come to comprise a critical and fundamental sector of our economy due to the consuming driven lifestyle of people like you and myself.

I don't understand the connotation of "God's Chosen"