My money is on the fact that you have ended the if statement with a colon.
You lose. I'm using the example code in the "softserial" section on this site.
In fact it is probably unwise to apply current to the digital pins if they are not powered in some way.
I don't WANT the other arduino powered. I've tried putting resistors on the digital pins, but it's still powering up, and now I'm getting "sync" errors so I'm pretty sure my Nano is screwed. I have to wait until a new one comes in before I can continue troubleshooting. How can I stop them from powering up?
I've had no problems with serial comm on Basic Stamps, PICAXES or the BX-24. They all talk to each other just fine, but the Arduinos aren't getting any info, and the example routines don't work.