Avoid Flames

Flames are angry, insulting personal attacks. Flames can also be weak attempts at humor, which usually include sarcastic or mean jokes aimed at an individual or a group. You should refrain from sending flames to a public forum. If you are flamed, the best thing to do is ignore it. If that seems impossible, your response should be kept private. You shouldn't respond to a flame in a public forum. And of course, it's wise to stay out of other people's fights.

It's important for all Internet users to remember that as ephemeral as the Internet seems, your words can remain on somebody's hard drive for years and years. Some of those hard drives are attached to publicly accessible search engines. Your words, written in haste or anger, can haunt you long after you've moved on to other things. Potential employers or potential friends could be put off by what they read of your writing -- or they could be enamored by your wit and intelligence if you post with discretion now.

Also remember that just because a message seems mean-spirited, inconsiderate or rude doesn't mean that the sender intended to come across that way. Humor doesn't often translate well when written in an e-mail or newsgroup posting. Misplaced or poorly executed humor can cause a flame war. You should be careful with your use of humor and also avoid assuming that a post that you don't like was really intended to raise a ruckus.

There are, however, posters who have one intention: to start an argument. Such people, who post what other users call "flame bait," are best avoided.

Never forget that you have a delete button and the power to use it.

Avoid Spam

The word Spam comes from an old Monty Python routine. The troupe is ordering from a menu in a restaurant that offers primarily Spam. They ask for eggs and Spam; eggs, Spam and Spam; eggs with Spam and Spam on the side; and end up by ordering Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam.

On the Internet, Spam is any message delivered indiscriminately to tens, hundreds, thousand, tens of thousands or even millions of unsuspecting people.

Spammers ignore the charters of mailing lists and newsgroups and post unwanted, irritating messages. They also gather through unethical means the e-mail addresses of millions of people. They waste Internet resources and cost some ISPs hundreds of thousands of dollars by misusing their lines and computers.

The practice of spammers is significantly different from how legitimate businesses use the Internet. No legitimate business will blindly send out e-mail, but they do develop lists of e-mail addresses for people who have expressed an interest in receiving e-mail related to their specific interests, hobbies or professions. Legitimate businesses also make it very easy for people to get taken off of their e-mail lists.

Do not participate in spam. And if you get it or see it, ignore it. Don't perpetuate the problem by responding to it and using up more Internet resources.

Respect Freedom

The Internet brings together people of incredibly diverse backgrounds. Our cultures, our politics and our religions are all quite different. While you may hold strong beliefs and are convinced that others should believe as you do, other people are free to disagree with you. The Internet is not the place to try and impose your views on others. By all means, engage in debate (in the appropriate forums), but don't take personally the intransigence of people whom you cannot convert.

Stay on Topic

Every Internet forum has a topic that it serves. You should keep your posts on topic. If you are participating in a forum for the discussion of the effects of Amazon forest butterflies on world weather patterns, you should not post your new recipe for apple pie. The two topics have nothing to do with each other. Don't even try to bootstrap an argument for why they are related. Instead, you should find a forum for pie recipes.

One of the sure-fire ways to make enemies on the Internet is to repeatedly post information that is off topic. You will be flamed (and nobody will have any sympathy for you). You may be mail bombed (which will upset your Internet Service Provider). You will surely be ignored in the future when you do want to post something on topic.

Spelling, Grammar, Good Writing

If your e-mail program or newsreader doesn't have a spell checker, you should get one. It's embarrassing to post a message and find later that you've misspelled a word or two (the voice of experience speaking here). If your grammar is weak, you might want to take some time to improve it. Your sentences should be well constructed and easy to follow. Brevity is always appreciated on the Internet. Clarity of thought is rare, but necessary. You should develop a habit of writing all of your posts off line, spelling checking them and re-reading them carefully. You should avoid posting the first words to emerge from your keyboard. By taking a little more time with your posts, you will do a better job of protecting your reputation.

On the other hand, you should be slow to criticize others who misspell words, mangle grammar or whose writing is turgid. It is never polite to publicly criticize anybody for their misuse of the English language. Few newsgroups or mailing lists will tolerate your signing on with the Spelling Police. While you should demonstrate enough pride in your posts to write them as correctly as possible, you should not hold others to your standards. You know nothing about the person's background, nationality, education or immediate situation. There may be other reasons besides sloppiness or ignorance that causes people to submit posts that do not shimmer and shine.

Chain Letters and Hoaxes

A chain letter is an e-mail that says something like, "Send me $1, add your address to the list and mail this note to five friends." Or they say, "Good luck will follow you if you e-mail this to five friends." Chain letters waste bandwidth and waste people's time and money. You shouldn't participate in them.

You should also avoid spreading false rumors. The Internet is rife with hoaxes. It's best not to forward any information through e-mail or a newsgroup unless you have confirmed for yourself that it is true.

Examples of common Internet hoaxes are:

* The Good Times virus: If you receive a message that warns you not to open any e-mail with the words Good Times in it, you've already been taken. The real virus is the amount of bandwidth this hoax wastes. There are similar hoaxes that warn you not to open and read e-mail. The truth is, you cannot get a virus that will damage your computer through e-mail. (Note: Viruses can be transmitted through e-mail attachments, sometimes called enclosures. You should never open an attachment that you are unsure about.)
* Craig Shergold: Yes, there was a young man who wanted business cards sent to him. But this message has become a hoax. It is no longer true. Be weary of any message that asks you to contact -- through e-mail, telephone or mail -- a specific individual or company in the name of charity.
* Neiman-Marcus: It's a funny story, but the cookie recipe saga just isn't true. Be careful about spreading urban legends.

These are examples of the kind of mail that you should not forward. At times, you will also be tempted to pass along a good joke. Keep in mind, most Internet jokes have already made the rounds at least once. If you want to post a joke to a newsgroup, Web forum or mailing list, post only jokes that are relevant to the group.

Quote

When participating in a discussion, it's important to remember that a post you are responding to may have been missed by members of the group. Technical glitches sometimes prevent e-mail or newsgroup posts from reaching everybody. So when responding to a specific statement, it's important to quote that statement.

All quotes should be attributed and marked, ensuring that nobody doubts where the quote ends and your thoughts begin. Most e-mail programs and newsreaders will take care of proper quoting for you.

The opposite extreme to not quoting at all is quoting too much. You should quote only enough of the previous post to help people remember the topic, help them zero in on what you're saying and to keep your comments in context. Rarely is it necessary to quote the entire previous post.

Contribute

If you're going to take the time to post something -- and require the time of others to download it, open it and read it -- you should have something to say. Quoting a long message and then writing, "Me, too!" at the end is not a post that contributes to the discussion. If you can't think of anything more substantial to say than, "I agree," you shouldn't post.

Signature Files

Most newsreaders and e-mail programs allow you to create a signature file. A signature file is a block of text that your software automatically appends to any message you send out (unless you override the default before clicking the send button).

Your signature should contain your name (full name preferably) and e-mail address. Some people also include a physical address, but most people feel uncomfortable including such personal information. You might consider including at least the name of your hometown, which helps people understand where you're coming from. For business purposes, some people include phone numbers. Many people include a favorite quote or saying. A few include ASCII art (letter pictures).

Generally, your signature shouldn't be longer than four or five lines. It's somewhat impolite to stuff people's mailboxes with files containing 50 lines of signature for a three-line message.

Subject Headers

Whenever you post to the Internet, be sure to properly label your post. A meaningful subject heading will help others decide whether they want to read what you have to say. When responding to an existing thread, you should use the existing subject heading.

Shortcuts

Because Internet communications tend to be flat, emotional intent can be lost or misunderstood. To help, Internet users have development hints and shortcuts to help readers get clued in. While the use of symbols and abbreviations can be helpful, you shouldn't over use these devices. Not everybody is as savvy as you are and a jumble of letters and punctuation marks can be confusing.

Smilies
Smilies, also called emoticons, are used to convey the smile behind the quip or the frown behind the reality.

: -) smile or grin
: -( frown
; -) wink
; -0 yell
: -@ scream
: -\ frustration
: -D big laugh

Abbreviations
Expressions that are often repeated have been reduced to a set of commonly recognized abbreviations.

BTDT been there, done that
BTW by the way
FWIW for what it's worth
F2F face to face
GIGO garbage in garbage out
IMHO in my honest (or humble) opinion
IMNSHO in my not so humble opinion
IRL in real life
LOL laughing out loud
OTOH on the other hand
ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing
RTFAQ read the FAQ (frequently asked questions file)
RTFM read the freakin' manual
TIA thanks in advance
TTFN ta-ta for now
TTYL talk to you later
WYSIWYG what you see is what you get
YMMV your mileage may vary

Typographical Emphasis
ALL CAPS -- shouting, yelling (It's considered rude to use all caps for normal communications.)

*emphasis* or _emphasis_ -- use of "*" or "_" before and after a word or words tells the reader you mean to stress these words.

<g> or <G> -- another way to grin

Conclusion

All of the information in this article was compiled after a wide ranging study of what others had to say about netiquette. That's not to say this is the final word in proper online behavior. Some people have different rules that they cherish. But these guidelines are pretty much common to other netiquette guides. You can't go wrong heeding the advice in this article.