@Phorm Or possibly a "ha ha only serious" type of humor response. I'd ask, honestly - one of the things that still sticks with me is :P as playful-sticking-tongue-out versus :P as expressing disgust. I cannot, for the life of me, ever see :P as being lighthearted.

@Soreth

You're right, I should probably ask. I never thought I'd reach the point where I was on THIS side of the generation gap, vis a vis online communication - But time waits for no djinn, I suppose.

@Phorm We all had to ask what stuff meant at the beginning, when we were the young ones. And youth always invent their own linguistic tweaks and twists in an effort to differentiate themselves from what has gone before. Honestly I'm not sure this is even new, I remember a few people on usenet who would do (: instead of :) for a smiley. It might just be that, communicating "I am weird"

@Soreth

Fair point, honestly. I suppose this has been going on for some time, and I'm just progressing along the chain of perception.

... I'm a little more shocked because the joke felt rather harmless to me.

(For reference, it was: "I have a genie joke I could tell, but I fear it would rub people the wrong way".)

@Phorm Yeah, I'd read that as more "here is an upside-down response to a terrible joke" than actually being upset. :)