A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO NETIQUETTE

Purpose

A beginner's guide to the rules of behavior on the Internet.

Revision History

Date	Culprit	Change
11/27/95	Jon Acheson	Created

What Is Netiquette?

Netiquette means "Net Etiquette."

Over the last 20 years, the Internet has developed its own rules of etiquette, of how things are done. There is a right and a wrong way to use capital letters, for instance.

To an outsider, these unwritten rules may seem as arbitrary as which fork you use for your salad. So I've taken the time to write some of them down.

Bear in mind that this document is neither complete nor definative. The 12 million people out there on the Internet certainly didn't vote on the rules laid out herein, and most people break a number of them. Even so, this is still a good starting point for people beginning to use the net for business purposes. When you actually get on the net, act carefully and keep your eyes open, and you can fill in the gaps from there.

The Rules Of Netiquette

1. They Can't Hear The Way You're Reading It To Them

The most common mistake that new users make when they get onto the Internet is to assume that everyone reading your messages will understand every nuance of meaning they would hear if you were speaking to them.

If you're speaking face to face with someone and you say "that's ridiculous" to them in a friendly way, they'll probably get it. The thing is, the "I'm kidding" part of the message comes from the way you say it, and on the Internet, nobody knows how you meant it to sound. If you write "That's ridiculous" in a message or newsgroup posting, it's going to come across as "That's stupid!"

You have to look at your message the way a stranger would read it.

"Emoticons"

One crutch that has evolved to fill this communications gap is the use of symbols like the sideways smiley face:

:) or :-)

to convey emotion. For example, writing

That's ridiculous! :-)

in a posting or e-mail message comes across as a friendly, "I'm kidding" turn of phrase.

Some other "emoticons" (there are hundreds of variants) include:

:( or :-(
A frown; indicates sadness, pouting, anger or displeasure.
Ex:
I have to go study for an exam. :(
means "Poor me!" or "studying really sucks."
For emphasis, or mock-sadness, people sometimes use a "crying frown," like so:
:~(

;) or ;-) A smiling wink, generally meaning teasing or irony.

:/ or :-/
A wry expression, like the corner of the mouth is pulled up. Indicates irony.

Don't overuse emoticons, or they get annoying. One per paragraph is a lot.

Remember that these symbols grew up in informal conversation. Correcting someone on their use of smileys, etc. would make you look like a grammar nazi.

2. Be Polite

Remember, you're talking with real people at the other end of the modem line. Some people post to the Internet like they're scribbling on the men's room wall. Some of them are even older than seventeen. Make an effort not to follow their example.

Think about what you are saying and reread what you send. Tone things down: change "That's silly" to "I disagree."

Don't assume that everyone who reads what you say will share your basic beliefs and assumptions. People from all over the world are on the Internet. It helps to present your opinions as opinions, not as unquestionable proclamations on reality.

3. Put Context Reminders In Your Replies

When you are following up on someone's post or e-mail, it's a good idea to word your reply in such a way that it jogs the person's memory as to what you were talking about. Instead of saying "Dave, you were right," say "Dave, you were right about those modem parameters." This presents the person at the other end, who may not even read your followup for a few days, from wondering what they were talking to you about.

A common way to handle this is to include the relevant portion of their original message in your reply, indented with a > or other character at the start of each line. You then write your reply to what they wrote underneath the piece of their message, like this:

>We wanted to have the background for our logo screens look like >a jumble of leaves, but then it was hard to read the text against it.

Did you try changing the color of the text?

>We also wanted you to run the "Charlie Brown Christmas Theme" as the >background music. Did you get the CD I sent you?

I'm sorry, but that music is copyrighted and we can't use it without permission. We do have some other jazz selections, however.

In standard Internet newsgroup/e-mail form, the reply always goes below the previous message, because otherwise the reader has to look down, read the previous message, then look up and read what you said, which is inconvenient.

Do NOT include the other person's entire message in your reply, as it wastes time to page through it. Just quote the relevant parts and delete the rest. It is acceptable to delete some of the middle of a long message, but you should indicate where you took stuff out by putting a

[snip]

[Contents deleted for brevity]

on an empty line where the text was removed from.

4. ALL-CAPITALS MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING!

Use mixed case letters as per normal communication. Save all-caps for emphasis, like when you write out the title of a movie or book.

Another mistake is to alternate lower and upper case letters for emphasis: ThEy LoOk LiKe ThIs. BoY, iS iT AnNoYiNg tO ReAd, BuT PeOpLe Do iT.

5. Mispelings Mak You Look Liek A Boob

Take the time to weed out the obvious misspellings in what you write. Constant chronic bad spelling makes your messages very hard to read, and weakens any argument you might make by casting yourself in a bad light.

Posting To Newsgroups

There are thousands of Internet newsgroups covering topics from adoption to Zappa. Some of these groups, particularly the ones in the biz. and comp. hierarchies, can be useful for business purposes. There are some additional rules to keep in mind, however:

1. Look Before You Post

The first, best way to learn how to conduct yourself in a newsgroup is to see how other people are doing it. See how the people you wind up respecting handle themselves. Be cautious at first until you know the ropes.

2. Find The Right Newsgroup To Ask Questions In

Often when you use the newsgroups as a resource you will be trying to answer a question. Searching for answers requires that you look in the right place, especially if you are going to post a question. It's a pain when someone posts a "help me" question about using windows to the newsgroup about making Microsoft Help files. And usually all the poster get out of it is "find the right group!"

Searching for Newsgroups

Most news readers will do a keyword search on the names of the available newsgroups. You simply give a string of characters to search for, and the news reader will find the next group that has that string in it.

You may have to guess a bit until you find the right word to search for. If your search for cd doesn't pan out, try compact disc or audio. If you can't find a specific group for your topic of interest, look for a more generalized group.

If you find one group but it doesn't turn out to have what you need, keep looking. There are often multiple groups on a given subject.

Making Sure You Have The Right Group

Read before you post. Are the questions being asked in the same league as what you want to know?

Look for a FAQ, a list of Frequently Asked Questions for the newsgroup. The FAQ should tell you what the group is there for, and may well answer the question you were asking about.

FAQS for lots of newsgroups can also be found in the news.answers newsgroup.

3. Make Your Article Titles Informative

Nothing gets ignored faster than an article titled "Question about Visual Basic" in one of the Visual Basic groups. You look at it and go, "Ok, so what's the question?" It would be much better to have the title say "How do I ______?" or "Question re: ________." That way, people reading down the lists of article titles in the newsgroup can look at the title of your article and immediately know what you want.

4. Avoid "Me Too" Postings

It is annoying to read a posting that says nothing except "Yeah, me too," agreeing with what someone else posted. It's a waste of time to everyone else. If you expand upon what the person said, fine. If you put a twist on what they said, fine. But if all you want to do is say how you agree with that person, e-mail them, don't post it.

5. Flames

Flames are hostile and insulting arguments. For example, the following snatch from comp.os.os2.advocacy features two flamers going at it:

>Confusius says that "any idiot who says unix is on the way out is a
>moron"
>
>As far as Unix vs NT , that's like Iron Mike Tyson(unix) against Pee
>Wee Herman (NT). It will kick NT's ass any day of the week.

Personally, I sure wish Unix would hurry up and get on it's way out.
It's a primitive dinosaur of an OS that nobody aside from morons with
black plastic glasses and propeller caps should have to be subjected
to.

Most people who use the internet get tired of all the flaming, and it's certainly inappropriate on a company account.

Avoiding Flame Bait

Some topics are perpetual sources of flames, and should be avoided while you are connecting on a company account. They include:

Why My Computer System is Better Than A Macintosh (or a PC, or an Amiga, a UNIX machine, Commodore 64, whatever)
Religious Arguments (the previous topic is also described as a religious argument in some circles)
Politics (Abortion, Gun Control, Affirmative Action, O.J., Nationalism, Etc.)

Trolls

A Troll is someone who spends their time trolling around looking for a good fight. They will often make inflammatory posts in the hopes of starting an argument. Ignore them.

What To Do When Someone Flames You

Case 1: Flames Without Content
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and annoys the pig."
Robert A. Heinlein
Some flames are nothing more than mindless abuse. The flamer is single-mindedly heaping scorn on whatever it is they're against, and has a completely closed mind to any replies that are made. They may even jump from abusing the original topic of the flames to abusing anyone who disagrees with them.
Ignore people like this. There is no point in arguing with them; their minds are made up.
If someone like this is constantly in your face, talk to our network people about it. Your news reader software can be set up with a kill file of people and topics to ignore. We can also block their e-mail and complain to the system administrators at their internet connection about their behavior.
Case 2: Flames With Some Content
Some flames are substantive arguments phrased rudely. The following is an example:
: Listen, child, you are the one who claimed that a 486-66 PC was : 5-15% faster than a Q840av, and then supported that with figures : outside that range. You didn't say it was an average. Now you : claim it is. Choose your words more carefully.
The proper response to this kind of behavior (on your company account, at least) is not to flame back, but rather to respond as politely as possible, and to base your response on the actual content of what the flamer is saying.
This probably won't impress a fanatical flamer, but it will tend to impress everyone else who reads the post. To the other 99.9% of the thinking universe, you will have won the argument simply by being reasonable.
Some flamers will simply grow more and more abusive if you respond to them. Ignore them: life is short, and some people won't ever learn.

6. Keep your Signature Reasonable

A signature file is a file that your computer can automatically append to the end of an e-mail message or newsgroup posting. It generally gives your e-mail address, and some other info about you. A sample signature might look like this:

John Doe               ------| The opinions expressed herein are my own and not 
jdoe@genericorp.com ---------| those of Genericorp or its management.
-----------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 "You know what I hate?  Indian givers... no, I take that back." - Emo Phillips

Signatures should not be too long, because other people wind up having to page down through them when they read the e-mail or posting. A signature that goes over five lines is pushing it.

Written by Jon Acheson

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