What does the * button do?

[tennmagpie]

Right underneath the button in the little toolbar thingy that appears every time you post, there's a button with an asterisk on it.



Yep, that's it right there. When I hover my mouse over it, it says "Emote." But, er, what does it do?

Eh, I feel extremely stupid posting this.

**presses the button**

So... what's it gonna do?

EDIT: Hmm... it adds an asterisk after your post? What's the point?/me

[pseudo at work]

Some people put actions in asterisks, e.g: falls down the stairs/me

It's popular in RPing and such.