Variant emoticons used on BIX (the Byte Information eXchange). The most common ( smiley) bixie is <@_@>, apparently intending to represent two cartoon eyes and a mouth (the bixie conventions have been influenced by Japanese anime). A few others have been reported:

^_^ ^-^

two variant smileys

-_-

frown; closest equivalent of :-(

@_@

bewilderment (uncommon)

O_o o_O

bewilderment (more common)

?_?

puzzlement

!_! O_O

surprise

$_$

money on the mind

%_% ;_;

crying

*_*

zoned out

>_<

puckered up, squinting

©_©

looking crosseyed at somebody, "Oh, please!"

A period (.) can be substituted for the underbar mouth where felt appropriate, for example: o.O as opposed to o_O. This is sometimes considered to amplify what is being sent over. Equals signs (=) can be appended to one to denote hair or a feline, as in =^_^=.

In the Japanese anime modern bixies often are modeled on, when a character is noted to be nervous a big water-drop-like thing forms somewhere around its head - also called a sweat drop or "bigsweat". This is denoted by a semicolon after the bixie, as in ^_^;;.

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