You'd be surprised at how "unnecessary" emotes get used. The classic :domo:, for instance, actually created a new emotion which I now feel on a daily basis.
I can already see Maru Mari being used as a "exit stage right" thing, e.g. "this topic is officially too lame; I'm leaving," or "the preceding portion of this post was spawned from too much sugar; I wash my hands of it", etc. That's just three seconds of thought to come up with that much. And I like Saber's TTS idea.
It's not like anyone here is threatening terrorism unless new emotes are put in; Saber just put forth a viable proposition and people have been brainstorming. Yeebus.
Some of you have been spared the hellish cauldron of Gaia. I would recommend you go check out the emotes, but I don't want to subject you to their new nastiness. Besides most of the emotes have been widely distributed among other forums anyway.
You'll regret it as soon as your forum gets big enough for idiots to start coming, and you see it in multiples as punctuation supplemental to the period.
What's with smilies these days? They keep on getting more and more complicated + more retarded ones but what really pisses me off is that the idiot smiles are replacing the better, regular smiles.
I really need to take that red out, but it would take a lifetime. I'll do it later. :P
EDIT: The first dance step is of my own devising, the second one (the hands-on-knees one) is the Charleston, and 1000 cool points to anyone who correctly names the third one.
Naw, the mods aren't going to put any new smilies in, but this one is set to :madskillz: on my forum. Heh, :khaaaan: is on my forums, and on the forums for Tauhid Bondia's (the Spells and Whistles guy) next comic project on an in-construction site.
The SCU have even more smilies than these forums. We need more. Like the "kerazy", the cold, and the guy hitting someone voer the head with a club.
We definitley don't need more emoticons just because SCU has them. I think smilies like that just encourage spam. And note how much more spam one can find on SCU than on these forums.