Please don't listen to this. Save me from the useless emoticons. Make people work if they want cuteness contests.
Funny thing is, forum users on one of my sites said the same thing but I introduced emoticons anyway as a test to see if those opposing change were in the majority. Guess what, they weren't and traffic to that forum and attendant revenue (donations and ad clicks) doubled. Users loved them and they helped moderate some of the more intense/sarcastic posts. Determining exactly when to adapt or die is never easy but it is always true.