Understanding Email and forum Netiquette.
I know most will already know this, but It might be useful to those that are fairly new to the wonderful world of cyberspace :)
Phil.
ARTICLE: Understanding Email and forum Netiquette
BY Trevor Johnson
In life, it is the moral responsibility for the elder to teach the younger, or for the experienced to teach the inexperienced. In internet life, the same moral responsibility applies in regards to correct use of email and forums.
One large difference is that, in internet life, it is very often the younger who are the experienced. The current waves of growth in internet usage, the new users, are largely from the older generations.
Accordingly, it becomes the responsibility of the experienced users to educate and train newer users in the correct usage of email. One simple way of imparting this education to lesser experienced internet users is to politely refer them to this article, either on the page you are currently reading or at https://BestPrac.Org/articles/netiquette.htm.
The internet life carries it's own versions of courtesy, privacy and security issues that all users need to know. Hence a new word has entered the vocabulary - Netiquette. (Internet etiquette.)
For example:
In internet and email culture, ALL CAPITALS IS AKIN TO SHOUTING and is universally seen as rude and impolite.
New email users often forget to include a brief "Subject" line on their emails, or do not understand the importance of it. Ordinary postal service "snail-mail" does not ordinarily require a heading about the contents of the letter on the outside of the envelope - though most posted periodicals and many commercial accounts nowadays do identify the contents or level of importance on the outside of the envelope. Email, however, operates very differently from snail-mail. Never omit a subject line, and keep your subject line brief and relevant. Without a subject line, your email will probably be seen as yet another junk email and be deleted unread by the intended recipient. More commonly, it may not even reach the recipient at all. Many ISPs filter suspicious looking emails and delete them without delivery. A blank subject line to an email filter is like waving a red rag in front of a bull.
Never send emails to people you do not know without their express permission. Only send email to people who you know, or who have clearly indicated that they want to receive correspondence from you. Violation of this act of Netiquette can land you in all sorts of trouble. You will be labelled as a spammer. In some states or countries, you risk being charged with criminal or civil violations of the law for sending unsolicited email. Even in countries or states where there is no specific law prohibiting unsolicited email, it is regarded as bad manners and offensive. If you check with your ISP, you will almost always find that they reserve the right to terminate your internet connection if they receive complaints about you for sending unsolicited email.
Cont:
Even when sending email to people that you do know, only send them what they are likely to want. Not everyone you know wants jokes or other "chain email" forwarded to them. Not everyone shares your sense of humour or has the time while connected at work to be reading frivolous emails. If you like forwarding jokes or other "chain emails" to your friends, check with them first to be sure they are happy to receive them.
Think before you type. Type, then think again. Unlike face-to-face or voice-to-voice communications, the easily and quickly typed email can all too easily be a source for expressing your feelings in the bluntest of ways. Similarly, the hastily written word may lack feelings and not express the emotions that can be sensed with eye contact or voice modulation in other forms of communications. It is too easy to forget that there is a human at the other end - not just a computer. You can very easily damage your own reputation and destroy friendships with thoughtless emails. Once an email is sent, you cannot retrieve it. The damage is done.
While to the experienced user all of the above is simply common sense, as the old saying goes "Common sense is not really all that common." These basics are not innate within the human sole. Newcomers need to be taught.
Oh I give up! ......if you want to read the rest of it, CLICK HERE.
Phil.
great article, Phil. And a nice reminder to everyone that because the written word is devoid of inflection and facial expressions, it can easily be misinterpreted.
You may have had problems posting it because the site still seems to be having a few minor technical issues. I keep having to "refresh page".
Great article, Phil. Hehe...Thought I'd try and post it all myself, but you are right it doesn't work. I should've known better than to question the internet master. ;)
Anyways, something I would like to add about sending spam e-mails. I've done a few in my time (gotta advertise, right? lol) and I was told that in many jurisdictions you need to add an out for the recipiant. What I mean is, that at the end of the e-mail you need to put a blurb in there basically saying that if you do not want unsolicited e-mails to send an e-mail to the person who sent it to them (or give them an e-mail address to send the request to) requesting they be deleted off your mailing list. Granted, I'm sure it's different with every place and people should check into it, but at least in Australia that works. lol
While it's great that something was done about e-mail etiquette, with the huge increase of people posting on message boards and chat rooms, it would be WONDERFUL if there was something out there on that. I've tossed the idea around a few times and even have done posts in the past, but that's just me. Hehe...I have found in the past that some people get ticked when a poster gives a suggsetion, but if it comes from some nameless article they aren't usualy so rough. lol..Go figure.
HAHAHAHAHAHA, Swifty!!!.........."the internet master" ......you must be joking! .....I WISH.
Thanks a bunch, but I hardly think that I deserve THAT description.
I'm getting your drift, re the forums. I just added it, in a couple of places. You probably guessed, that's what prompted me to post this article, but it didn't work, not yet anyway. Even tried to mail it, but the reciprocant was not accepting mail. Oh well, we do what we can, and live in hope lol.
Phil.
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