Ask HN: Do I use full stop after an emoticon at the end of a sentence? :) or :).

Use it instead of punctuation :-) Then start the new sentence like this with a capitalized letter.

I still haven't figured out how to use it inside of parenthesis, so I try to avoid doing so.

You have http://english.stackexchange.com/ for questions such as this. Search for "emoticon" there.

Also relevant: can an emoticon count as a close paren? (wink :-) or (wink :-)).

yep, this is another pain point. (thanks for asking :()

That's a valid monkey mouth, but make sure to close your parens!

omg! i closed the parens and it turned out to be a monkey mouth >:-(

Before. :)

(but if you use parens, make sure to add a last word ;) right?)

thanks guys/gals :)