You may have noticed that within our FAQ's, within AOL role play, role players may surround their characters actions and thoughts with a double set of colons (some times triple and more), such as these :: ::.

The :: :: help present an action or thought of a role playing character and seperate those from text which represents speech. Here are a few examples to try and further clarify actions:

::Smiles::
::Judy waves, then nods her head toward Jake.::  

Here are a few examples of :: :: being used with actions and speech which the character is saying out loud.

::Judy waves, then nods her head toward Jake.:: Good morning! How are you?
::Jake grins.:: Doing great! You?

So, instead of how one would read a book, where the character's actions and thoughts are unmarked, and speech is surrounded by quotation marks, :: :: then surrounds the role players character's actions and speech becomes unmarked. Confusing to the beginner, we know! But with some time, patience, and reading/lurking within a room, it shouldn't take too long before you grab a hold of it!

Just to confuse you further, however, not every role player will use the :: ::. Some might actually use **, or other symbols.

Good luck, and don't let it break your head! :P