Regard them as punctuation
as ! is an exclamation mark, so ;) is a 'this is not entirely serious' mark. Such things become necessary in a medium which does not always convey subtlety of meaning as well as it could. The alternative - strictly formal language in our informal communication - is too dull to contemplate. We'd sound like a bunch of lawyers, and who the fuck would want that?
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 22:01, Reply)