From an article in the January 1996 Computer & Information Services Newsletter at the University of Minnesota: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Netiquette Schmetiquette ordinary and extraordinary guidelines for Internet encounters ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Netiquette is part common sense and part computer related guidelines. Being aware of netiquette can help make the interactions you have with others on the Net pleasant. When you use the Internet, most of the interactions you'll have with others will be pleasant and non- confrontational. But, just like in everyday life, you will encounter people who are oblivious to the feelings of others and to netiquette rules. Exercise Patience and Restraint ------------------------------- If you receive a message that annoys or angers you, it's OK to pound out a flaming reply on your keyboard. It's probably not OK to actually send that message. We suggest you wait a day or so before sending a reply. You can always revise or discard your original reply. People should exercise patience as well as restraint. It's easy to be seduced by E-mail's speed. Don't assume that "no answer" to your mail means that the mail did not arrive or that the recipient does not care. Just because E-mail can be sent instantly does not mean that the receiver can respond instantly. The recipient may be on vacation or answering hundreds of other messages. \/ Request For Comments #1855 ============================= RRFC 1855 discusses responsible use of the network, and it's available at the FTP site shown in the URL below: ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1855.txt The October 1995 document was prepared by the Responsible Use of the Network Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). You may want to obtain the full document; it provides much more than information than is printed here. General Guidelines ------------------ RFC 1855 has sections that cover these topics: \/ One-to-one communication, which includes E-mail and Talk \/ One-to-many communications, which includes mailing lists and NetNews \/ Information Services, which includes FTP, WWW, Wais, Gopher, MUDs and MOOs Rules for Communicating ----------------------- Common rules of courtesy apply to all electronic communications. In fact, without the feedback of body language or voice inflections that take place in physical conversations, these rules take on increased importance. Common Courtesy and Common Sense ................................ \/ subject lines: Mail should have a subject heading which reflects the content of the message. \/ security: Never put in a mail message anything you would not put on a postcard. \/ copyright: Respect the copyright on material that you reproduce. \/ courtesy: Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive. \/ verboseness: When replying to a message, include enough original material to be understood but no more. It is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material. \/ replying to E-mail: You may shorten the message and quote only relevant parts, but be sure you give proper attribution. \/ multicultural: Remember that the recipient is a human being whose culture, language, and humor have different points of reference from your own. \/ junk mail: Never send chain letters. Electronic Courtesy ................... \/ signatures: Many mailers strip header information which includes your return address. In order to ensure that people know who you are, be sure to include a line or two at the end of your message with contact information. \/ use mixed case: UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING. \/ smileys: Use smileys to indicate tone of voice, but use them sparingly. :-) is an example of a smiley (Look sideways). \/ ASCII text: Do not include control characters or non-ASCII attachments in messages...If you send encoded messages make sure the recipient can decode them. (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange) \/ hidden costs: Sending someone mail may also cost them in other specific ways like network bandwidth, disk space or CPU usage. This is a fundamental economic reason why unsolicited e-mail advertising is unwelcome (and is forbidden in many contexts). \/ think small: Including large files such as Postscript files or programs may make your message so large that it cannot be delivered or at least consumes excessive resources. A good rule of thumb would be not to send a file larger than 50 Kilobytes. Mailing Lists and NetNews ------------------------- Section 3 of RFC 1855 covers one-to-many communications, such as mailing lists and NetNews. In that section you will find cautions and guidelines specific to these communications, such as: \/ Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your present or your next boss...your words may be stored for a very long time in a place to which many people have access. \/ Save the subscription messages for any lists you join. These usually tell you how to unsubscribe as well. \/ Don't send large files to mailing lists when Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or pointers to ftp-able versions will do. If you want to send it as multiple files, be sure to follow the culture of the group.
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Page last updated: Fri, October 5, 2001
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