Helsy,if you'd like a real smiley like this one,:),to appear,don't type :-).Type it without the hyphen(that little line,;)).I also couldn't figure these things at first,but I found my way around.if you see anything in a post that you'd like to put in your posts,click on the "quote reply" icon on that post.The box where you type appears in such a way that you can see exactly what the person had written.
And speaking of sites,check this one out:
http://www.guitarnoise.com
And if anyone has noticed how I like talking about it,don't berate me.It's a very good site.And if it wasn't for it,I wouldn't know guitartricks.I hyperlinked to here from there.