The importance to each person on this subject depends on when you started playing. I will explain my personal experience to get my point across.

I started in 2009 in NY, our Godfather had strict guidelines about street speaking which were posted in every family. For example, you needed to be Made Man to answer to a Boss (I'm going from memory here), a Capo to answer to a Consigliere, so on and so forth. The streets where monitored constantly...a woman who I admired, Starshine, had an awesome story wacked because she used the word 'jet' instead of 'airplane'. Back then, role-play was a priority and nothing was over looked. This is what I learned, this became a norm to me, and when you think about it, it was as it should be. Unfortunately, wars happen...Godfathers die...descendants do not always carry the legacies that were so carefully planed for a role playing game.

Obviously, I believe smileys have NO space in the streets. It is mafiaso talking to mafiaso...let's have a little respect!

Even when using your phone the suggested word usually pops up and saves you the extra thumb presses. If you are on an actual keyboard I'm pretty sure the one or two extra keystrokes won't kill you.

Show me that technology nowadays and  I'll open new worlds to you instead of turning "U" back to Ashes, MarySibley !

Colourfull Ma'am, I couldn't do such a thing, even if your dice stats were so bad as you coming to me asking for it... We all have our decency to preserve, but you maybe don't understand those things...

I'm a little concerned some people have actually answered here that they are fine with smileys being considered OK in a roleplay post in the 100% roleplay forum areas. I understand people have different standards, but if you can consider this OK, then what standards do you really have, if any at all? If you consider a smiley is OK in a written roleplay, then what exactly would you consider to not be fine when posting in a roleplay forum?

It does feel like a generation thing. Like, when old timers see the young kids and think 'what the fuck has the world become!'. I feel the same way about roleplay when I look at the newer users not truly having the same respect for roleplay that us old timers do. The question that arises for me though is if this is just the new way of role playing? So much has changed to technology since I first started roleplaying, so maybe it's just no longer going to ever be the same. And another question arises, which is, what has caused the newer generations to not really care about or know about the standards some of us grew up with?

Rebellion twrds old gen? :)

Liberty of speech? 1st amandment? Are you the old ones the only ones who dictate the rules? Those who don't give a fk about you can't say what they have on their mind? They have not their own minds on things going around? Do they need to adhere to YOUR rules?

lol. A little feisty there with your rebellion eh, and I think you may have missed the point of the thread. They aren't OUR rules, just a little something called written roleplay etiquette that has been around since however long, that some of us have learned from playing roleplay games with a written element. They aren't necessarily rules either, just ways of conducting oneself that people learn when they get involved in roleplay with communities that have these kinds of standards.

Some places though, do have certain do's and don'ts that result in punishments of sorts, which are determined by the game admins, but other things are just things that are understood by those that have been roleplaying for a lengthy period of time, like using proper spelling and grammar and not using text speak in written roleplays.

In the case of MR, it's definitely more chilled with the standards than other games. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and in some ways it works for this type of game, and in other ways it takes away from the roleplay environment and how skilled newer people can become in terms of roleplaying.

So, not rules at all, just standards that exist in other written roleplaying communities that sometimes may be lacking here. ;)

U no - der wer standards in war makin til the atomik b was invented. It changed rules and standards... Remark plz that I dindnt uz a single koma :)

In roleplaying you don't use smileys or emoticons nuff said. 
It just looks plain stupid. It's called roleplay, so you typ out what you do. smiles and winks

Damn, I thought we were in OOC mode here...

If I want to play the role of a character that signs evry single of his phrase with a :) (Smiley), or even if I would want to express myself in Klingon in the streets, would that be forbidden for me to do so by some rules?

I really don't see why you guys so agaced if someone types a fucking :) in his text. You don't like it, ignore it. It fucking agaces me when someone tells to me "Look, you didn't smile corectly, your smile has to be fucking symetric in order to be a smile; and you fucking have to be blue eyed and blonde hair in order to have the right to smile". Capicce?

Oh and authorities can be nice at times, and I prefer those with acting fools inside the system, that those with active selfish traitors or backstabbers in theirs.

Smarty there really is no point explaining why you shouldn't be posting smileys in roleplay threads further mate, as I pretty much already did that and others have too, and you seem to be a little too heated about this and want to simply argue for some reason.