In doing research for my rhetoric paper, I come across this.

[yamikonumber7]

"Even more than the examples from personal blogs, this example from a community blog shows that icons can be rhetorical in a Burkean sense-they were used to not only identify the user but as a rhetorical move whereby a specialized activity (making a certain type of visual image) showed certain users to be in the know (a part of the inside joke) of the community."

*points to icon*

*returns to research*