Some Flyertalk colleagues question the sense/nonsense of just answering, from time to time, with a smilie. In my judgement, if not overused, (just) a smilie shows the posting people above that you follow/agree/disagree, in short that you care, you show interest in the trip report above, you did read the above posting, etc.

I prefer a smilie, even a red one , compared with 0 feedback to my postings. How about you?

And I have an egoistic advantage, when I answer with a smilie, I do it often at times the majority of Flyer Talkers are still not online and when they start 'lurking' they will open the original message and my smilie just once (together).