They are "smilies" and are a way of adding expression to plain text. Cock your head to the left, like you're eating a taco, and you'll see the eyes, nose, mouth...
On certain forums you will get actual smily faces or other emoticons when you type in the right code. Try a google search with the keyword "smilies" for more info.
Okay, will do that! Thanks for the info. I see alot of symbols and have no idea what some of them mean, it would be nice to know if I should be happy or mad!lol