I downloaded these emoticons from mess.be and after i was not able to see any emoticons in any of my contact's  names at all. i re downloaded plus and msn messenger but i still can't see them. also when i re downloaded msn messenger, eveybody's name was there email address but when i downloaded plus i gave one contact a custom name and everybody's name returned to normal but i still can't see the emoticons in there name. but if there status is on away the little yellow bar that tell you that they may not reply because their status is set to away shows the emoticons but if i send an instant message i can't see them but only when it is in their user name. can this be fixed?

Yes, this can be fixed. All you have to do is disable custom names. It doesnt show the emoticons in the name because it is a limitation.
(plus>preferences>contact list>custom names> disable them from there) I hope it helped you

thank you it worked. yay!