Sorry, i don't have an answer for your problem but this ... 
$message =~ s/:\)/\<img src=\"$imagedir\/smiley.gif\"\>/g; # happy emo
+ticon
$message =~ s/:\(/\<img src=\"$imagedir\/sad.gif\"\>/g;    # sad emoti
+con
 ... etc. ...

[download]
Is in serious need of refactoring (for the sake of maintainence). I think it was broquaint that recommended you use a hash for this. Maybe this approach wasn't shown to you properly. The idea is to store the emoticons and just the image name (minus a path and extension). Then you can substitute all emoticons with one expression: 
use CGI qw(img);
my $imagedir = '/path/to/images';
my %emot = (
   ':)'       => 'smiley',
   ':('       => 'sad',
   ':p'       => 'tongue',
   ':P'       => 'tongue',
   ':o'       => 'oh',
   ':O'       => 'oh',
   '*hug*'    => 'hug',
   '*flower*' => 'flower',
   '*wink*'   => 'wink',
   '*devil*'  => 'devil',
   '*love*'   => 'love',
   '*sleep*'  => 'sleep',
   '*conf*'   => 'confused',
);

my $data = do{local $/;<DATA>};
$data =~ 
   s/
      (:.|\*.*?\*)
   /
      img {
         src => "$imagedir\/$emot{$1}.gif",
         alt => $emot{$1}
      }
   /xeg
;

print $data;

__DATA__
stuff *sleep* :) stuff *hug* :( stuff :P
:p stuff *wink* :o stuff :O stuff *flower*
*devil* stuff stuff *love* *conf* stuff

[download]
This isn't perfect (doesn't catch emticons with noses), but it is a start. Please study this as it will improve your understanding of regexes, hashes, and laziness. Hope this helps :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

In reply to (jeffa) Re: database problems: repost by jeffa
in thread database problems: repost by sulfericacid

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