Let's look at the My Little Pony Arena forums as a perverse example- Despite the fact that it is a forum dedicated entirely to crappy plastic animals made in the third world, the general composition and content of the posts eclipses the majority of what's posted on this forum, and most topics don't include a smiley in every single post, let alone half a dozen smilies per post.
If a bunch of freaks collecting toys can come across as halfway literate, sane, and competent, then surely it's not asking too much out of a bunch of grown men. If it is too much to ask (and perhaps it is), then an ignore feature would be nice, just as it was in the past.
