NETIQUETTE
Here are tips for appropriate and inappropriate behavior on the Internet, to help communication proceed smoothly, efficiently, and as pleasantly as possible.
Click here for a more comprehensive guide, based on Virginia Shea's book.
- Sign it. Don't confuse people about the origin of your message. Sign it. Unless there is a security concern (as with public or archived discussions), you may be expected to use your real name.
- Do not send addresses of closed lists to non-members. If you send an address of a closed list on the "To:" or "Cc:" lines, it will be disclosed to all recipients. Those who respond will respond to the closed discussion. If an addressee is not free to write to the list, place the list address on the "Bcc:" line, so it will be a "blind copy", not disclosed to the other addressees.
- Minimize copies to overlapping lists. Including multiple lists in the address sends duplicate copies to common subscribers. If lists have many members in common, it may be inefficient to send to both.
- Prune duplicate addresses. As a discussion progresses, the address of a discussion list may come to appear duplicated in the heading. To avoid having it arrive in duplicate, make sure each address appears only once.
- Keep subject header current. If the discussion has gone off on a tangent, write a new subject line and include the old one in parentheses with the word "was". Example:
- Subject: New topic (was Re: Old topic)
- Encourage participation of others. Discussion groups can promote democracy. Try not to monopolize the forum or the thread. If you've written lately, see how your comments are received before addressing the same subject again.
- Beware of ambiguity in complex written language. Spoken language can depend on vocal cues such as stress, intonation, and phrasing to be understood. When reduced to writing, these distinctions can disappear. Consider the difference in meaning of the following identically worded questions (one from a song by Cole Porter):
- "What is this thing called love?"
- "What is this thing called, love?"
- Be patient -- hold back. When unsure whether to send a message immediately, wait a few hours or a day. If you don't know whether your idea is important enough to send, put it aside and look at it later. Maybe someone else will cover the point, so you won't have to. Maybe someone will expand the point you want to address, so you can respond to two or three people in one shot. Maybe your thoughts will become clearer, allowing you to strengthen a point.
- Attribute quotes clearly. Clearly demarcate material that you did not write, preferably by a greater-than sign (>) or other suitable non-alphabetic symbol at the left margin. (Some e-mail software adds this symbol to every line automatically. An advantage of that symbol is the ease of reading the word appearing after it, with or without a blank space.) Before the first quoted passage, identify the author being quoted. When several people are being quoted, consider including the author's name at each quoted paragraph. When forwarding a message, mark the beginning and end clearly.
- Don't force subscribers to reread. When including copied content from previous postings, provide only the text necessary to establish continuity. Never copy entire, unbroken multi-paragraph messages that subscribers have read already. It wastes bandwidth, download time, disk space, and the time necessary for every reader to visually scan through to make sure there is no new material.
- Send attachments only when necessary. Don't send large, unexpected attachments. Separate files can be difficult for the recipient to locate, associate with the message that carried them, open, and delete. Graphics are more conveniently viewed when posted on the World Wide Web.
- Include an e-mail address. If your message isn't getting through, you want to know about it. With various hardware and software on the market, you cannot expect to anticipate every technical problem that may arise. Encourage people to inform you of any difficulty they have by including an e-mail address at the bottom of every page.
- Break large files into smaller parts. As your files climb upward from 50 KB, they will take longer to load. Fewer and fewer browsers will be able to accommodate them. If an operating system is verging on overload, a 300 KB is likely to crash it. Then you lose your audience. Even if it loads correctly, a person may not be willing to wait more than 15 seconds to see it. Those who wait may become irritated -- toward you and your ideas. Better to break the material into smaller pages, linked together.
- Don't obscure your text.
- Try to use light, pale backgrounds. Whether the text is light or dark, it can be difficult to read on dark or luminous backgrounds. Unless you have enough knowledge of various browsers to make sure your text will be easy to read, don't obscure it. People won't bother to read your words.
- Keep wallpaper behind text low in contrast. Graphics should enhance the text, not compete with it. Bold, busy patterns can distract the eye from small typeface.
- Include named anchors. To attract links, insert named anchors at major headings on each page. They allow links from anywhere to locate a section of the page, while ignoring the rest. So if information near the bottom of your page is useful, anyone can write a link that brings people right there. Because you've made it easy, it's more likely to happen. That produces a larger audience for you and your message.
- Document revision date. Readers may want to check your page from time to time for new information. Help them by placing a revision date at the bottom, so they won't waste time.
- Edit out superfluous source code. Useless tags add bandwidth and complicate interpretation. Null text, such as repeated blank spaces, slows download. Before uploading a page, check your source code to make sure it is not littered with null leftovers from editing.
- Test every page and link in place. After uploading pages, view them on your browser for proper appearance. Test the links to make sure they are aimed at the right places.
Questions? Comments? Send mail to aloe@rev.net.
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Last revised: 15 June 2009
visitors since 8 May 2001