The style at the time :)

:v

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ I still do that :) !

I still do
";-;" conveys a fundamentally different vibe as compared to 😭, even if both nominally mean "crying"
Same for ":)" vs. 🙂

Timeless. Emoji's take too much time and have less "soul".
- 😱😬🥺😭😭😭😠😡🤬💔
  
  I fucking hate that emoji spam people do, one is enough. People never did that shit with ascii smileys.
  
  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
- 👻😵

My fav is giving one of theses
-___-
and if they don't get the message
-___________-

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
- ┬─┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
  
  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)
- This was much later. At the time unicode was not supported throughout the internet, so we were limited to ansi/ASCII.

Greetings from 1990s Japan.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (*´∀｀*) ( ^ω^ ) ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ (=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=) ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(;￣◇￣)┘ ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ (つД`)ノ (￣◇￣; )( ´_ゝ`)
- Faces of different people after the party drugs hit
  Summoning the most kawaii demon
  Homer Simpsons pulling wishbone
  Person organizing a line of dildos
  Pedobears
  People looking for missing glass eye of first person

It makes me sad that in many chat programs anymore, expressing joy or general contentment with "carat-underscore-carat" is no longer supported.
Alas, even here

^_^
Shows as "sup" between angle brackets. :(

Whenever a sentence needs some indicator of humor or sarcasm, I reach for :p
- I'll do a ;) most of the time for humor.
  
  That's taken as flirtation these days, FYI.
  Think about when you wink at people IRL.
- :þ supremacy

( . )( . ) ?
- ( . Y . )
  
  ( . 人 . )
- ( Y )

...at the time? They're not still cool?
- :(
- We got these now 😒
  
  Yeah, they standardized creativity out of textual expression.
- I've never stopped using emoticons. :P
- B^)
- Our telegrams are dictated, not read, and the messengers really can’t be trusted with punctuation. Get with the times old man.

You can't take our emoticons from our dead hands! ((-(-_(-_-(-_-)-_-)_-)-))
- (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I first got on the Internet just as the shift from :-) to :) was happening, only geezers still used :-) and :) was the hip new thing...
- In my time we used ^^ and -.-

Kids today just won’t understand. T__T

Nice humblebrag about still feeling emotions.
- Come to Lolland!

XD
- I can't stop reading it as equis de (the Spanish pronunciation)

I still miss the old :S from the msn days. Nothing really conveys the same emotion nowadays
- I used (and still sometimes use) o_O for the same reaction

:3

I still do :/

Oh God it's me... I'm old now.
I don't like the pictures... I always prefer to use text except for when something really disgusts me, then I happen to like "🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮"
- Oh God it’s me… I’m old now.
  it'll happen to you too!

One of my faves was: \m/ (>_<) \m/

the day i don't :3 is the day i'm dead
- . >:3

B=====D~~~~ ( :
- :3
  
  ( . Y . )

*<:-)

Who am I to say that one can make a file in the home folder called .XCompose where you can easily input emoticons for easy access using the compose key ¯( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)/¯
- (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
  I am not putting up with that. I have to use an app on android
  
  On iOS, you can make keywords that transform into smoticons and ASCII art
  ⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠛⢻⣿ ⡆⠊⠈⣿⢿⡟⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣎⠈⠻ ⣷⣠⠁⢀⠰⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠋⠛⠛⠿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⢹⣿⡑⠐⢰ ⣿⣿⠀⠁⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⡩⠐⠀⠀⠀⠀⢐⠠⠈⠊⣿⣿⣿⡇⠘⠁⢀⠆⢀ ⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀⢤⣿⣿⡿⠃⠈⠀⣠⣶⣿⣿⣷⣦⡀⠀⠀⠈⢿⣿⣇⡆⠀⠀⣠⣾ ⣿⣿⣿⣧⣦⣿⣿⣿⡏⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⠀⠀⠐⣿⣿⣷⣦⣷⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⠀⣾⣿⣿⠋⠁⠀⠉⠻⣿⣿⣧⠀⠠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡀⣿⡿⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⢿⣿⠀⣺⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣠⣂⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣁⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣄⣤⣤⣔⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
  
  The Japanese keyboard layout still has them (⁠✷⁠‿⁠✷⁠)
- Share your config?
  
  Mine is a hack job, mostly a placeholder really,I just took the most used from WinCompose of all places, but have at it.

[|87

:DDD
- D:

@_@,

Embracing it, putting an onion on my belt.
- : onion: 🧅
  
  It was a yellow onion, but one of those fancy white ones you have nowadays.

[]D ][ []\/[] []D ][ []\[]

There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling!
-Comic Book Guy
https://youtu.be/gsQAQlDeXYM

Apparently in some other languages they just use ))) or some crazy number of parentheses, like )))))))
It shouldn't bug me as much as it does, but c'mon, it doesn't even look like a face!
- Chat prompts, like some IRC clients used to, suffix nicknames with a : to separate message from the name, so it could be they simply implied the "eyes" were already there.
  Bloodninja: )))))
  
  Bloodninja
  Oh this guy/gal knows the Internet Deep Tracks(TM)
  lol XD
- iirc one of the Asian languages pronounces the number 4 as "ha" so instead of typing things like "LOL" they'll just spam 4 to respond to something funny.
  The parenthesis thing is probably something similar. We've all got weird linguistic quirks; the digital era just dumps fuel on the fire.
  
  Thai: 555
- I sometimes use :))))) to express giddiness :p