DaveRo May 17
asking what I see on my Android tablet, chrome browser

In JO's opening post I see only text.
It ends with
"... below.)
😀"
^^^^^^ that's & # X 1 F 6 0 0 ;
( ! how do I know what anyone else sees ! ? )

In Jeri's post I see
#128540; followed by, I guess, a winking cat face, pulling tongues
&
#x1F61C; followed by the same face

In your post May 18
I see a cat face(isuppose it's a cat? or a bear??)
with one eye looking like a > , the other open, with about half a mouth, under the > .


In Noreen's two posts I see six of what I'm calling a cat's face.
They all look pretty similar, I can see one has maybe a tear next to one eye.
If I take the trouble to enlarge the screen I can see one with a > for one eye and a big heart shaped mouth.
~~~~~~~~

I understand
a wink ;) -"I don't really mean this"
a smile :) -"This is\that was funny or good"
sad :(      -"unfortunately \ This is\that was sad"

Anything beyond that is lost on me.
When I was a child
pulling tongues was done with both eyes open and meant "go away, I don't like you"
I don't remember anyone winking at the same time as pulling tongues.
Adults might have pulled tongues at a child,followed by a smile, as a joke; I don't remember adults pulling tongues at other adults.
Maybe I've lead a sheltered life!

If I read a book or article I hope I'll pick up whether it is serious or humourous or sarcastic. But if I get the wrong end of the stick it doesn't usually matter. It also helps to know the subject and particularly to know the writer from earlier pieces.

The snag with 'clever' or subtle humour in forums is that it can be read in too many different ways. On a public forum you don't know who is reading it for the first(\last!) time.
And the emoticon can be misread too so it might be clouding rather than clarifying the message.