1. If you have e-mail, people will assume you check it frequently. A good rule of thumb is to check e-mail at least every other day. If you're not able or unwilling to do that, it's best not to have e-mail at all.

2. Keep your message brief and to the point. Many people have a lot of e-mails to read and don't want to read the Great American Novel when they just want to know if you can meet them for lunch.

3. When replying to e-mail, be a severe editor. No one wants to see two pages of their own e-mail repeated in a reply consisting of "I agree". On the other hand, do put some pertinent parts of the original message into your reply. Otherwise the recipient may wonder what it is you are agreeing to.

4. When forwarding messages, delete most of the forwarding headers. We've all received messages or even worse, jokes, that have been forwarded many times. Sometimes you have to plow through pages of headers before getting to the meat. You'll earn the gratitude of the recipient if he doesn't have to find the needle in the haystack.

5. Don't send out e-mail with ten or more names in the "To" or "cc" header. Again, people don't want to plow through useless information before getting to what they're interested in. One approach is to put all but one of the names in the "bc" header. If you want recipients to know who else is getting the message, use a non- expanded group name in the "To" header. For example, I could have the group name "GBSCG Membership". When I use it, every member will get a copy, everyone will know who is also getting a copy, and no one has to plow through 150 names. How to implement this varies with different e-mail programs. Check your manual.

6. As a rule, don't attach big files like pictures to your e-mails if they are bigger than 100KB. Some of us don't have broadband and such files can paralyze a computer for ten minutes or more. The exception is when you know the recipient has broadband or has specifically requested that you send him the file. Even then, most mail servers restrict attachments to 1MB or less.

7. Speaking of pictures as well as other attached files, send them in a format people are likely to be able to read. For pictures, JPEG would be the preferred format. For the output from a word processor, MS Word format (.doc) is probably OK, although rich text format (.rtf) can be read universally.

8. Don't forward virus warnings unless you've checked that they're for real. Most are hoaxes. Two good sites to check are http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm or http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ .

9. On the other hand, use anti-virus software so you won't pass a virus on via e-mail.

10. If you know the sender personally, let him know that he sent you a virus. He might like to know.

11. If an unsolicited message invites you to cancel further messages, don't. It just verifies that your e-mail address is for real.

12. When someone sends you a change of address, make sure all your address books are updated.

13. When your own address changes, make sure you notify all your correspondents. It is not necessary to notify the people who send you spam. :-)

14. Clean out your trash regularly. Excess trash slows down your machine.

B. The Psychology of Communicating by E-mail

1. Since one cannot see the receiver or read body cues and expressions, inflections and tone of voice, many have learned ways to compensate.

2. Typing in all caps is considered rude; it implies shouting and anger. If you are a poor typist and can't be bothered with the Shift key, let your reader know that. If your vision is impaired and you need to use caps, let your reader know that as well. People don't speak in caps or entirely in small letters which imply a meek, lazy or bad typist.

3. "Emoticons" were invented to convey emotion and add detail to email. Some of these are: I'm happy :) ; I'm sad :( ; I'm winking ;-) ; tongue hanging out :-p; grin :-D

4. A more complete dictionary of emoticons can be found at: http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/emoticons.html

5. Dave Barry's version of humorous emoticons is at: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/davebarry/emoticon.html

6. There are other codes to reflect response and shortcuts, among them LOL (laughing out loud); BTW (by the way); TTYL (talk to you later; FAQ (frequently asked questions) More of these can be found at: http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/pusdphs/temp/learningpoint/EmailEmoticons.doc
These tend to be used more in chat rooms and on Instant Messengers though they sometimes appear in email.

7. Strip the forwarding: One of the most common violation of manners is committed when people do not bother to delete the forwarded sends with long lists of addresses. It violates privacy of addresses and is time wasting for the reader. People who say, "I don't have the time to do that" are implying "My time is more important than yours." As the Internet is getting more crowded, sending all that extra stuff only serves to slow other transmissions down when millions of people are neglecting to shorten their messages.

8. Depending on the program you use, you can cut and paste from the received screen to the send screen or your program might do that for you when you hit reply. I do not know of a mail program that does not offer Blind Copy (bcc) which sends to many people (as I do with the more than 225 on the mailing list of this group.)

9. If there is a long exchange back and forth, often many pages of past email will accumulate on the current mail to be sent. Leaving just the last one as a reminder for the reply is sufficient You are not permitted to delete a portion of a received message, only the whole email. However, if you hit reply the new message created will allow you to edit. If not, cut and paste only the portion you want to send into a new message.. A simple highlight, then delete, on the page you are sending will clear all that out.

10. Keep your mail brief. Do not flood people with requests to forward long e-mails.

11. Do not send mail embedded with self-opening music unless you know the receiver wants it.

12. Acknowledge receipt of an email as a courtesy so that people know you received it.

13. Carefully check your address list when sending private or confidential information to avoid mistakes that can be costly to friendships, etc. If the email is personal, it is best to get the sender's permission before forwarding it.

C. Obstacles To a Good E-mail Environment:
Spam, Viruses, Trojans, Worms and Hoaxes - And What Can Be Done about Them
The Dark Side of Email

1. What is Spam?
Spam is unsolicited e-mail offering a service or a product. The purpose is always to get money from the recipient regardless of whether or not the offer claims to be free or not.

2. Here are some conclusions from a recent study. The complete study can be found at www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57613,00.html
a. Replying to spam will always result in more spam. The majority of spammers never replied to requests for more information on their product or service. Instead, the customer's e-mail address was passed on - presumably sold - to other spammers, roughly half of whom also did not reply to requests for product information, but again just passed along the address to other spammers.
b. Only 17% of spam appeared to be legitimate, people with real products to sell and actually interested in selling it.
c. 16% of spam turned out to be blatant scams. For example, one spam offered "100 Hours Free International Phone Calls" but only after paying an $87 membership fee to activate "phone club privileges."

3. What can be done about Spam?
a. Never reply to spam. Even if there is an offer to delete you from their mailing list, don't reply. To do so would only verify that your e-mail address is real.
b. Most e-mail programs today have a filtering feature. This allows mail with certain words in the Subject line or from certain senders to be deleted or be put in a spam folder for further review. There are spam black lists available. An example is http://pegasus252.tripod.com/antispamlist.htm
c. There are also programs that examine e-mail while downloading from the server and delete unwanted mail. One example of such a program Spamihilator which works with most e-mail programs. It can be found at http://quantum_nz.tripod.com/antispam.htm
d. Occasionally your e-mail address may be hijacked and used to send spam. You didn't send it, of course, but it looks like you did. Keep your e-mail address private. If you post on bulletin boards or forums, modify your address like: cmoirnospam@rcn.com and tell those who wish to respond to remove 'nospam'.

4. Viruses, Trojans and Worms
a. What are these things?
A computer virus is a small program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. A virus must meet two criteria:
It must execute itself.
It must replicate itself.
A Trojan Horse is not a virus. It is, however, a program, often harmful, that pretends to be something else. For example, you might download what you think is a new game, but when you run it the files on your hard drive are deleted, or your passwords are e-mailed to another person. Trojan Horses are impostors--files that claim to be something desirable but, in fact, are malicious.
Worms are programs that replicate themselves from machine to machine without the use of a host file. Worms usually move around and infect other machines through computer networks. This is in contrast to viruses, which requires the spreading of an infected host file.
To learn more, see http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/cug/vtalk.htm . This is an excellent site, easy to read, with a great deal of information.
b. How does a virus get into your computer? Viruses are incorporated into files. They get into your computer either by downloading an infected program or through an attachment to an e-mail. Even a picture can carry a virus. Beware of attachments from people you don't know. Even if an attachment seems to come from someone you know, be suspicious if the e-mail it is attached to doesn't seem quite right. My daughter sent me an attachment but there was no Hi Dad or similar introduction. Sure enough, my antivirus software issued a virus warning.
c. How do you protect yourself from viruses, trojans and worms? Modern antivirus software checks downloaded software or e-mail as it arrives and warns if any of these are present. If any of them are, it will also delete them. Norton and McAfee make popular antivirus products. A good but also free antivirus product is AVG6. You can get it at http://www.grisoft.com.

5. Hoaxes
Interspersed among the junk mail and spam that fills our Internet e-mail boxes are dire warnings about devastating new viruses, Trojans that eat the heart out of your system, and malicious software that can steal the computer right off your desk. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most all of these messages are hoaxes and are nothing more than chain letters. To check out if a message is a hoax, go to one of the following sites:
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

D. Choosing an E-Mail Service and Program

1. Types of E-Mail Service
Using e-mail is a two steps process, connecting to the Internet via an Internet Service Provider and the e-mail service itself. To make use of the e-mail service requires an e-mail program. All ISP's provide an e-mail service but some ISP's such as such as RCN and AOL also provide an integrated e-mail program when they connect you to the Internet.
a. Not all ISP's provide such an e-mail program. If that is the case, you will have to use a separate e-mail program after being connected to the Internet.
b. It is also possible to use an e-mail program other than the one provided by the ISP. For example the e-mail program "Outlook" built into Microsoft Office can be used by AOL subscribers instead of the one provided by AOL.
c. A third way to use e-mail is to use a web-based e-mail service like Hot Mail. In that case you go to a specific web page to send and receive e-mail and don't make use of the ISP's e-mail service at all. Many of these are free. They can be found by the use of a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

2. Criteria for Choosing an E-Mail Service and Program.
E-mail is divided into two parts, receiving and sending.. E-mail services and programs will provide certain features for each of these. Choosing a service and program should be done on the basis of which of these features are important to you.

3. Receiving E-Mail
a. Mail Boxes: How many mail boxes are provided? The number of mail boxes needed depend on your needs and the number of other people using you system.
b. Your Address: If you think that you will change your ISP you might consider a service that will allow you to move your e-mail address from one ISP to another. Such a service is provided by many colleges to their alumni. Alternatively, if you own your own domain, you may want to use that address for your e-mail as well.
c. Storage: If you can only download your mail infrequently, you may want to make sure that you are provided with sufficient storage space. 4MB seems nominal. How long will the server keep old mail?
d. Can the service/program protect against viruses?
e. What protection is there against spam? Can this protection depend on the mailbox being used? Trying to protect children.
f. Can e-mail be forwarded?
g. Methods of storing received e-mail, retrieving stored e-mail.
h. Moving messages within and between folders.
i. How large an attachment are you allowed to receive?
j. Will you be able to read messages formatted in HTML?

4. Sending E-Mail
a. Address Book: Does it have flexibility: alphabetize new entries, allow grouping, Include information other than name and address?
b. Can you send e-mail to a mailing list?
c. Help: Does the service provide on-line help? Can you get on-line help for the e-mail program in addition to the help menu.
d. Can you compose e-mail off line?
e. Does it provide spell-check?
f. Does the program allow you to format text (bold, size, italics, color etc.)
g. How easy is it to attach a file to your e-mail. What is the size limit?