It's not that hard actually communicating your neaning through words, without the gestures and the tone of voice. People have been doing it successfully enough for hundreds, even thousands of years, since writing was invented.

But it does call for a little bit of attention and patience - especially when you are in a setting where people have different understandings such things as irony, and different styles of humour.

But I'm very glad the Mudcat isn't equipped with a batch of emoticons. I'd sooner get misunderstood from time to time, and work a bit harder at avoiding it in future.