Tone, email
Email is a terrible medium for accurate communication. IM is only slightly better. Check out this Wired article on it.
This is why I think people who hate smilies are dumb. Smilies are important clues to the tone of your message. I don’t care if Shakespeare didn’t use them — you’re not Shakespeare and the recipient of your message is likely not much more literate than you. 
February 13th, 2006 at 11:16 am
I’ve fixed the issue of smilies looking stupid by changing my name based on the email. I usually sign with my proper name. But if there’s some argument going on, or something is likely to be misconstrued, I sign it “Scooter” – it’s hard to get mad at “Scooter”, you just know he’s not as serious as “Scott”.
February 14th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I’m not Shakespeare? Oh crap those men in the white coats were right!