BIG BAD WOLF: I found said check box and unchecked it. No more smiley icons. Thank you for your posting.

JamesHird: True, you idea is cheaper, but having a lot of games going is not my problem as I have considerably less than most paying members now. I might even consider it next March when my paying membership expires. Though I've curtailed my use of the site of late, I still like being a paying member in case things change or if I want to use some of the options that non-paying members don't have, like creating tournaments or having 80 games going at once. In the meantime, I'd just as soon not see all these flashing icons that don't do much for helping me understand someone's post or message, but certainly annoy me while I'm checking out a game or trying to read a post. I ignore them. The numbers aren't much of a nuisance. They don't move, and they also inform me that someone has used a smiley icon.

AbigilII, pauloaguia, Hrqls: If Abigails option was available, I'd not use it because I still want to read the post itself. As for when the post needs the smiley icons to actually make sense, I'll just make do and not understand the post.

Thank you all for your suggestions. And thank you Fencer for taking the time to think about people that may not want to have the smiley icons and having this option available. I wonder if this'll make my pages of the discussion boards load faster? I have it set for 85 posts and I use a dial up modem. Are the smiley icons generated from my computer in a table that knows the icon to put in place, or do they come from the BrainKing site and have to be loaded from it for each one in the page?