Currently we do not have settings to disable it, but you can switch this editor to use Joomla default editor - Tiny-mce from backend > Easydiscuss > general > composing > Default Editor , you can refer on my attached screenshot below.

The idea of disable the emoticons is also interesting for me. Just one vote more!

Thanks for head up on this.

Perhaps it would be best if you can submit a feature request regarding this issues by creating a new ticket on the forums and set it to "Feature Request" so that everyone else could vote for it.

e.g. this Easydiscuss feature request area https://stackideas.com/forums/easydiscuss/feature-requests

We will prioritize this feature during the development process for the next major version of Easydiscuss if there are more people request on this.