Currently we have two commands that do similar, but slightly different things.
EMOTE allows colours, SMOTE does not
SMOTE allows $character references, EMOTE does not
On FK SMOTE is much more useful, but most MU*s call the command EMOTE, not SMOTE. So this is a needless difference for newbies to learn.
I suggest that EMOTE understand both colours and $references, and SMOTE just be made a built-in alias for EMOTE (and the help updated to explain it this way).
I cannot say I like this. Unless we can toggle the character intercepts, when you do and do not want characters like ' " $ or { to trigger dialogue changes like speech.
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!" "'Tis as impossible that he's undrowned as he that sleeps here swims." "I'm begging you please wake me up, In all my dreams I...."