Internet Etiquette

[Vladimir Vrabec]

Vazeni pratele,

nedavno jsme zaradili na omicronovskem gopheru do archivu "Net Etiquette
Guide". Jak se zda, jsou problemy se sitovou etikou zive i jinde. Pripojuji
e-dopis Stan Horwitze, ridiciho znamou e-konferenci HELP-NET, ktery napsal
kratky spisek "Internet Etiquette", urceny predevsim pro zacinajici uzivatele
Internetu na "Temple University". Verzi tohoto spisku, urcenou pro sirsi
verejnost pripojuji. Verim, ze bude k uzitku i nam. Zdravi
                                                            Vladimir Vrabec

************
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Thu, 31 Mar 1994 14:26:09 EST
>From:    Stan Horwitz <STAN at VM.TEMPLE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Here comes AOL.COM
>
>Hello folks;
>
>As the  Listserv postmaster for  Temple University,  I have been  involved in
>popularizing BITnet  and the Internet  here for several  years. I am  also an
>avid discussion  group (mostly  Usenet) reader. This  issue of  network abuse
>concerns me a lot.
>
>Many novice Internet users create chaos on  the Internet due to their lack of
>familarity with our "culture".  The best way to deal with  this problem is to
>educate these  people on  how the  Internet's services  and culture  work. To
>avoid having Temple's new Internet users, misuse the Internet, I just wrote a
>little  blurb about  Internet  etiquette  yesterday. While  the  facts in  my
>document are  not my  own, I  think I managed  to write  a clear,  yet brief,
>statement  about Internet  etiquette. Sure,  companies such  as AOL  might be
>guilty of unleashing unitiated people on  the Internet, however, I think many
>colleges and universities are also guilty of the same thing.
>
>Here at Temple, anyone who wants free Internet access has to fill out a short
>account application form. Yesterday, I  started having everyone at Temple who
>is  responsible  for  distributing such  forms  to  hand  out  a copy  of  my
>netiquette  tips  document  with  each  form  they  give  out.  We  are  also
>restructuring our training  workshops to include tips  on Internet etiquette.
>Perhaps this will help Temple's Internet users avoid ab sing the Internet and
>BITnet. I've never  received any complaints of abuse by  any Temple people. I
>am not sure  if my superiors have been  so lucky, but I want  to address this
>problem here anyway.
>
>One of the  Listserv lists I run  is called Help-Net to  help novice Internet
>and BITnet  users learn about  the many  network services available  to them.
>Help-Net, during its  4+ years of existense has been  the welcoming point for
>thousands  of  new  users  to  the  Internet  culture.  With  that  in  mind,
>yesterday, after I finished writing this netiquette document for my Temple, I
>also made a  version for Help-Net subscribers. Anyone who  wants this info is
>welcome to it  without any copyrights attached  to it.
>
>Yes, I  should have done  this a  long time ago,  but the idea  simply didn't
>ocurr to  me until  yesterday. In  any event, feel  free to  use it  for your
>local Internet users if you want to. I  am also going to get in the habbit of
>sending these  etiquette tips  to anyone I  see who could  use the  info. For
>example, if I see someone post one of those damned David Rhodes chain letters
>again on  Usenet, I  will forward  a copy  of my  netiqette statement  to the
>person who posted that junk.
>
>This document is available on each  of Help-Net's three document archives. To
>get the  file from  Temple's Listserv,  just send  the command  SEND NETIQUET
>INFOHN to LISTSERV at VM.TEMPLE.EDU or  to LISTSERV at TEMPLEVM. Its also available
>via Gopher on  Temple's Gopher which is  called cronkite.ocis.temple.edu. Its
>in the "Computer  Resources and Information" folder under  Help-Net where its
>called "Internet Etiquette Tips". For those  folks who aren't lucky enough to
>have  a Gopher  client available  locally, you  will also  find this  info on
>Temple's  anonymous  ftp  server  which   is  called  ftp.temple.edu  in  the
>pub/info/help-net subdirectory under netiquette.infohn.
>
>Any comments  you may have  about this document are  welcome. Just send  me a
>private E-mail message.
>
>
>  Stan  Horwitz  Internet: STAN at VM.TEMPLE.EDU  Bitnet:  STAN at TEMPLEVM
>  Temple University  -- Senior  Consultant (My  views are  all mine!)
>  Manager of the Help-Net and Suggest lists and Listserv Postmaster.
>
>------------------------------
************

Internet Etiquette

by Stan Horwitz (stan at vm.temple.edu)
   Senior Academic Mainframe Consultant at Temple University

The Internet is a  vast community of people from all  over the world. In
this global electronic community, the  only impression other people have
of you is  based on what you  say through your writing and  how well you
say  it. A  thorough knowledge  of  E-mail etiquette  will help  prevent
misunderstandings. The  following tips apply to  sending any information
you  write  over the  Internet  (i.e.,  Usenet, Listserv,  and  E-mail):

Use mixed case text in your  writing. Uppercase text denotes shouting so
you  may  offend some  people  by  typing  in  all uppercase  text.  All
uppercase text is also hard to read.

Never send  chain letters via the  Internet. Sending a chain  letter can
annoy recipients  and cause  hostility. Some  recipients will  return so
many copies of the letter to you  (mail bombing) that it could crash the
system you  use for E-mail. Other  people will report you  to your local
system administrator who might  suspend your Internet access privileges.

Include a subject heading in each  E-mail message you send. Be sure that
your subject  heading is  brief and clearly  indicates exactly  what you
intend to write  about. This helps people organize  and prioritize their
incoming E-mail. Many  people will ignore a message if  it does not have
a subject indicated or if it is  vague. They feel that any message which
does  not  include  a  clearly  written  subject  isn't  worth  reading.
Additionally,  if you  reply  to  a message,  make  sure  your reply  is
relevant to  the subject of the  original message. If not,  the thoughts
you  intend to  convey in  your  message won't  match up  with what  the
subject  says  it should  be  about.  This  will confuse  your  readers.

Don't post  the same  message to many  different Usenet  groups. Posting
the  same   message  on  several   Usenet  groups  at  once   is  called
crossposting. Many people read several  groups and they get annoyed when
they see the same message  appear in different places. Crossposting also
wastes network resources  and people's time. Post your  messages only to
the minimum number of groups  necessary.

Don't  post a  message  on a  group  unless the  topic  of your  message
pertains to the  topic of discussion on that group.  For instance, don't
post a  question about a  computer problem on  a group that  talks about
science  fiction movies.  Before you  post a  message to  any discussion
group, read through  that group's postings to be sure  you know what the
group's discussion  is all about.  If you're  not sure about  the topic,
ask on the group.

Don't be afraid to post a message on a discussion group if you think the
message is appropriate  for the group. No one will  bite you for posting
a  message as  long  as  you don't  consciously  try  to offend  anyone.
Electronic discussion  groups work  best when a  large number  of people
contribute  to the  discussion.  This free  exchange  of information  or
opinion is what  helps to make the Internet a  dynamic global community.

As you  begin to  learn about  the Internet  and its  various discussion
groups, you will  probably want to try your hand  at posting messages to
some groups. The best way to learn  about this is to send a test message
to a  group, however, people who  have been participating in  that group
(particularly busy groups) hate to  see test messages interfere with the
flow of the discussion on there. For  that reason, a few groups were set
up just  for testing purposes. On  listserv, you're welcome to  try your
hand at posting messages to test at vm.temple.edu if you're on the Internet
or  test at templevm  if  you're  on BITnet.  For  Usenet  groups,  there's
alt.test, misc.test.  Most Usenet  group hierarchies  have a  test group
within  them.  Please  use  these  groups  for  your  testing  attempts.

Be careful  in what  you say  and how  you say  it. E-mail  is faceless.
Unintentionally   offending  someone   is  easy   because  your   facial
expressions  cannot be  seen and  the emotion  in your  voice cannot  be
heard.  If you're  joking,  say so  or  use a  smilie  face symbol.  For
example, use :)  to denote a humorous  smile. A list of  smilie faces is
available  via  anonymous  ftp  on ftp.temple.edu  and  on  many  Gopher
servers.

If you receive a lot of  E-mail which you requested, you are responsible
to  read it  on a  timely basis.  Don't let  your account  overflow with
E-mail. This  can easily happen with  some busy Listserv groups.  If you
don't regularly  read E-mail from a  particular list, sign off  it. Many
discussions have  archives which can  be retrieved from  the appropriate
Listserver. If  you go away  for a while  and cannot check  your E-mail,
suspend your Listserv subscriptions until you return.

The Internet  is neither  private nor  secure. Some  people can  look at
almost  anything you  send through  the Internet,  even private  E-mail.
Don't  send confidential  information  (i.e.,  social security  numbers,
credit card numbers, etc.) to anyone else via the Internet.

************