Shoutbox

Another possible way around this rather than typing .heh is keeping the shortcut as /heh but typing two /'s before your thing, so for example typing //heh, this will show your emoticon and (in case your wondering) no /'s will be shown before your message.

This isnt a solution but i find that typing // is alot easy and quicker (and youll probably find easier to get used to and remember to do) than to relearn to type a .

A further (and more extreme) option is to go to Plus! > Preferences > Instant Messages > Commands and Tags and then uncheck the box "Allow the use of commands and tags" however in my opinion this removes alot of plus!'s functionality and is a rather drastic way to get around this, i would only really recommend this if your emoticons are more important to your IMing than plus!