Hi Chiara! Your name is one-half of one of my favourite art techniques. 
/Say and /shout as vicinity-based channels are indeed typically kept in character by roleplayers (don't expect non-roleplayers to respect that), as are certain Linkshells, depending on the purpose of the shell in question. A /tell is generally understood to be out of character unless there's a context given why it would be in character, but many will use ((double brackets)) to make clear a tell is OOC at least initially as a courtesy to fellow RPers.
We typically use /emote for actions, which is also kept IC, while using *asterisks* to append actions to statements in say and shout is a matter of personal taste. Some find it useful, others find it makes their messages look untidy. "Quotation marks" are frequently used to insert dialogue in emotes by anyone, however. The default emote list can be used for actions, though only the most basic sorts like pointing, laughing or dancing are generally used. More specific ones can end up clashing with the way a character is intended to be portrayed, so they get most of their use when people are being silly.
Thoughts are expressed as emotes, without quotes, by those who feel they add flavour or express complex visible emotions more succinctly than trying to describe the physical expression of their character. Others avoid them entirely for fear of metagaming or giving away inner details of their character, except perhaps when being silly.
This thread is a great introductory resource, and the RP Discussion forum is full of useful threads as well as being a great place to take your questions if you don't want to keep using this thread for them.
/Say and /shout as vicinity-based channels are indeed typically kept in character by roleplayers (don't expect non-roleplayers to respect that), as are certain Linkshells, depending on the purpose of the shell in question. A /tell is generally understood to be out of character unless there's a context given why it would be in character, but many will use ((double brackets)) to make clear a tell is OOC at least initially as a courtesy to fellow RPers.
We typically use /emote for actions, which is also kept IC, while using *asterisks* to append actions to statements in say and shout is a matter of personal taste. Some find it useful, others find it makes their messages look untidy. "Quotation marks" are frequently used to insert dialogue in emotes by anyone, however. The default emote list can be used for actions, though only the most basic sorts like pointing, laughing or dancing are generally used. More specific ones can end up clashing with the way a character is intended to be portrayed, so they get most of their use when people are being silly.
Thoughts are expressed as emotes, without quotes, by those who feel they add flavour or express complex visible emotions more succinctly than trying to describe the physical expression of their character. Others avoid them entirely for fear of metagaming or giving away inner details of their character, except perhaps when being silly.
This thread is a great introductory resource, and the RP Discussion forum is full of useful threads as well as being a great place to take your questions if you don't want to keep using this thread for them.
