::: CEE UCL HelpDesk: Netiquette :::

Brevis esse laboro, Obscurus fio -- I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Netiquette

"When thou enter a city abide by its customs"
- The Talmud

The Internet, however, is made up of more than computers and commands. All of the computers and commands would be useless if it weren't for the people who used the computers and commands. The commands are neat, but it is the PEOPLE who make the Internet what it is.

The problem is that every grouping of people develops its own culture and common rules that governs the behavior of the people.

Follwing "Netiquette" Rules and Conventions is going to give you an insider's look at how to avoid some of the mistakes that EVERYONE makes when they start out on the Internet (and still making them). If you can take what is said in this lesson to heart, you are going to find that your travels on the Information Superhighway are going to be a whole lot smoother.

"Netiquette" Rules and Conventions

"Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing"
- William Shakespeare, MacBeth

One of these days you're going to get tired of Web surfing or listening in on LISTSERVs, IRCs, Usenet newsgroups or whatever, and you're going to want to say something yourself. At that moment your life will change. Let's see if we can't make that a change for the better.

Evangelism:

Everyone is tempted from time to time to evangelize, to stride boldly into the enemy's camp and throw down the gauntlet. We will never see the end of people who pop up on comp.sys.intel praising Macs and Amigas; who send mail to the SKEPTIC list that flying saucers really, truly do exist; who enlighten the Buddhist newsgroups that they're all bound for hell, and on and on.

In the entire history of the net, no one has managed to do this without looking like a complete idiot. If you believe you are the one person who will succeed where millions have failed, then you're ready to learn about ...

Flames:

There is nothing you can say that won't offend somebody:

     > It's a bright, sunny day today.

     You filthy *@!?$, what have you got against Seattle?

Flames (violent verbal expressions of disapproval), misunderstandings, overreactions, and hurt feelings are par for the course.

Four lessons from experience, a.k.a. "HAAB" rule that would help you deal with Flames:

Hedge your bets rather than saying, "Metal rules! Death to all that appose!!" try saying "In my humble opinion (often abbreviated IMHO) metal bands perfectly express my feelings, choices, and lifestyle. Your mileage may vary" (another net cliche', less frequently abbreviated YMMV). By the way, BTW is another frequent net abbreviation, for what it's worth (FWIW).
Apologize when misunderstanding is the culprit, and especially if you respect the person who misunderstood, take the blame on yourself for being unclear, apologize, say what you meant more clearly (if appropriate) and put it behind you. As in real life (remember that?) people who are quick to anger are often equally quick to forgive.
Avoid flame bait (conduct which gravely offends the norms, mores and folkways of a particular group) "Now wait a minute!" you say. "Do you mean that something that's accepted behavior on one list or newsgroup will draw dozens of stinging, ridiculing comments in another?" I sure do. What can you do? Lurk a while before you post. Read what's said like an anthropologist, trying to discover what the big no-nos are. The beginning of a school term is a wonderful time to do this, as you will observe the clueless newbies who weren't smart enough to read this paragraph being torn to shreds. There are some things you should NEVER do, and we'll list them in a minute, but let's get to the last bit of advice.
Bow down to the group's gods. In every Usenet newsgroup and listserv mailing list there are old, grey heads who have earned the respect of everyone in the group. For example, amongst the subscribers to the list discussing the late American bandleader Stan Kenton are the producer of a Kenton box set and the authors of definitive Kenton biographies and discographies. You are entirely ignorant compared to those people. Never pretend you're anything else. They would dearly love to help you -- to answer a question, help you find a rare record -- but you'll always come out second best in a head-butting contest with them.
Still other group members have earned their status through long service. Friendships have developed over many years, and marriage is not unknown. By commenting abusively to or about one of these gods, you'll earn not only her enmity, but the enmity of all of her friends -- which may be everyone in the group but you!

DOs and DON'Ts of Netiquette (or how to avoid most flames)

"Abusus non tollit usum"
- Potential abuse should not be used as a decisive argument against any use

DON'T include the entire contents of a previous posting in your reply.

DO cut mercilessly. Leave just enough to indicate what you're responding to. NEVER include mail headers except maybe the "From:" line. If you can't figure out how to delete lines in your mailer software, paraphrase or type the quoted material in.

DON'T reply to a point in a posting without quoting or
paraphrasing what you're responding to and who said it.

Reason: a dozen postings may occur between the original message and your reply. At some sites your reply may get there before the original. DO quote (briefly) or paraphrase. If the original "Subject:" line was "Big dogs" make sure yours says "Re: Big dogs". Some REPLY functions do this automatically. By net convention, included lines are preceded by ">" (greater-than signs). Some mail editors and newsreaders do this automatically. Others require you to do it manually or set the "indent character" to ">".

DON'T send a message saying "Why doesn't anybody say
anything about XYZ?" or "Who wants to talk about XYZ?"

It's always a risk to start a new topic (often called a thread). The group may have just finished a long, bitter war about that very subject. But if you want to take the risk, SAY SOMETHING yourself about the subject you're raising.

DON'T send lines longer than 70 characters (or columns).

This is a kindness to folks with terminal-based mail editors or newsreaders. Some mail gateways truncate extra characters turning your deathless prose into gibberish. Some mail editor tools only SEEM to insert line breaks for you, but actually don't, so that every paragraph is one immense line. Learn what your mail editor does. Separate your paragraphs with blank lines. Make your message inviting to your potential readers.

DON'T SEND A MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS. CAPITALIZED
MESSAGES ARE HARDER TO READ THAN LOWER CASE OR
MIXED CASE.

Actually, a message in all caps is regarded as "SCREAMING" or "SHOUTING" or "OH, I'M MAD AS HELL" with a serious intent for initiating a fight. Well, you gotta fight, you gotta fight. Else, don't give a wrong signal -- life is too short for this kind of unnecessary mistakes.

DON'T betray confidences. It is all too easy to
quote a personal letter in a posting to the entire group.

DO read the "To:" and "Cc:" lines in your message before you send it. Are you SURE you want the mail to go there?

DON'T make statements which can be interpreted as official
positions of your organization or offers to do business.

Saying "Boy, I'd sure like to have one of those Cray super computers" could result in a truck at your loading dock and a bill in the mail even larger than your student loan. DO treat every post as though you were sending a copy to your boss, your minister (or your worst enemy).

DON'T rely on the ability of your readers to tell
the difference between serious statements and satire
or sarcasm.

It's hard to write funny. It's even harder to write satire. DO remember that no one can hear your tone of voice. Use emoticons (or smilies) like :-) or ;^) -- turn your head counterclockwise to see the smile. You can also use caps for emphasis or use net conventions for italics and underlines as in: You said the guitar solo on "Comfortably Numb" from Pink Floyd's _The Wall_ was *lame*? Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND???!!!

DON'T make a posting that says nothing but "Me, too."

This is most annoying when combined with first or second DO and DON'T above. Ditto for "I don't know." DO remember the immortal words of Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889): "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech."

DON'T assume everybody has the same knowledge,
if you do, as you have.

Make all your jargons as clear as possible so that one will understand, or can find out what it is. Remember that people on other computers around the world cannot guess what type of computer, operating system, and program you are using. Never say "my program" or "my computer", but be specific as "elm under Solaris 8" or "MS Word 2000 on a Macintosh" or the like.

DON'T mis-use the net.

DON'T mis-use the net for personal flames, silly jokes, commercial or politcal advertising, chain letters, or anything that is illegal in one of the participating countries. And NEVER follow-up to any of these if they happen to occur. Usually it is best to IGNORE them and to put the offending subject line or author name into your "kill file."

DON'T get fooled by practical jokes.

Do not believe everything you read on the net. Before you react to a posting, ask yourself whether it might have been meant humourous, satirical, or sarcastic.
For example, if someone suggest to use the Unix command "rm -rf *", don't do it, it would delete all your files.
If someone asks the millions of Usenet members to mail something to a certain mail address, don't do it, it would overflow that person's computer ("mail bomb").
Do not believe that you can ftp new files from the host 127.0.0.1, which is your own computer.
Do not believe that David Johnson could make money fast.
Do not believe that Criag Guy is still in hospital.
Do not use Michael and Al's "spamming" method of advertising.
Enjoy, but do not get confused by the jokes posted by Mr. Kibo.
Never try any pratical jokes yourself! Experienced net users know how to detect any forgeries, trust me.

A word to people living in the United States: the net is international. If you tell a Belgian she's being unAmerican, SHE ISN'T OFFENDED. OF COURSE she's unAmerican; you're unBelgian. She doesn't care about being lectured on the First Amendment and American values. She doesn't HAVE a First Amendment, and she thinks Belgian values are BETTER. Americans have made fools of ourselves by forgetting this everywhere else. Let's try to behave a little better on the net.

Finally, many groups have had the sense to write down some of their norms and folkways in a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list along with (what else?) the answers to frequently asked questions. Many Usenet FAQs are posted monthly or so on the news.answers. Listowners of listservs are often quite willing to mail you the FAQ for the list.

With all we've said above, and with all the help newsgroup moderators and listowners are providing to newcomers, it almost seems like you'd have to work at it to go charging in with your mouth open and your eyes and ears shut, thereby aggravating and alienating some otherwise perfectly nice people. The good Lord gave us two eyes and two ears and one mouth to remind us of that very thing. But he gave us ten fingers, and here we are.