Last time I touched on that subject was on a crossposted topic to rec.music.folk and rec.music.filk following my usage of the wink ;-) being missed.

Here is most of one reply:

Jon Freeman wrote:
> in case, I was trying to use the "irony/joke one" in my post

Even with an emoticon, irony has a bad history of being
misunderstood. And emoticons indicate that _something_ is
intended as humor without indicating which portion thereof.
Generally, it's safer on the net to spell things out -- or
to make your irony *VERY* broad and explicit -- even if that
does ruin the joke. That's especially true when
crossposting.

Or you can simply say "OK, I knew that but thanks" when
someone isn't sure you're joking and attempts to clarify.
YOU know it was a joke, but other readers may not, and it's
worth explaining for their sake.

I don't agree BTW. I think that without facial expressions and particularly when dealing with an "audience" containing many you don't "know", that some indication whether *grin* or the emoticon is needed but I also believe that people should try to recognise such indications and give a little thought before diving in.

That's not to suggest that I'm infalible - I've managed to missread a post and dived in responding to what I'd read rather than what was said on more than one occasion.

Jon