READING AND WRITING NETIQUETTE

This text is a collaborative work of students enrolled in Reading and Writing through the Internet (2001-first semester). 

The summary of all the contributions was done by Jean Carlos Rezendes Santos and some suggestions sent by Patrícia Almeida were also included.

Caps Lock

Sometimes, people want to emphasize some points so THEY USE CAPITAL LETTERS.  The problem is that that can be considered  shouting. So, you must avoid that, otherwise you can be misunderstood.

Chain Letters

Chain letters are basically a way to get someone else to spam for you. They involve sending people messages which instruct them to redistribute the messages to some number of other people. They are annoying. They are rude. They are pure evil. But aside from that, in many places they are also illegal and have in the past led to individuals losing their net access. So, please, if you see a chain letter, just say no. Related to chain letters are various net hoaxes.

 

 

Flaming

Flaming is the practice of attacking people on a personal level. While flaming is relatively common on the internet, almost everybody will claim they're opposed to it. They may even flame you for having flamed someone. It's all really confusing, actually.

However, there are some fairly obvious things. Responding to someone's analysis of the deficit crisis by telling them that they probably walk funny or weren't breast fed could easily classify as flaming. Making rude comments about an individual's sexual organs or religion would also probably classify.

Personally, I stick to a simple rule: I say nothing about anybody that I can not back up with facts. I do not comment about people's religions, their eating habits, whether or not they smoke, etc. If I decide to comment about someone's level of intelligence, I make sure I have good examples to support my comment. But even then, I do this very rarely.

 

Respect other people's privacy

            Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk drawers. So naturally you wouldn't read their email either.

            Unfortunately, a lot of people would. This topic actually rates a separate section. For now, here's a cautionary tale. I call it

 

The case of the snoopy foreign correspondent

In 1993, a highly regarded foreign correspondent in the Moscow bureau of the Los Angeles Times was caught reading his coworkers' email. His colleagues became suspicious when system records showed that someone had logged in to check their email at times when they knew they hadn't been near the computer. So they set up a sting operation. They planted false information in messages from another one of the paper's foreign bureaus. The reporter read the notes and later asked colleagues about the false information. Bingo! As a disciplinary measure, he was immediately reassigned to another position at the paper's Los Angeles bureau.

The moral: Failing to respect other people's privacy is not just bad Netiquette. It could also cost you your job.

 

 

Nobody is always on-line

            Remember that people with whom you communicate are located across the globe. If you send a message to which you want an immediate response, the person receiving it might be at home asleep when it arrives. Give them a chance to wake up, come to work, and login before assuming the mail didn't arrive or that they don't care.

Say Hi and Bye

            Always say goodbye, or some other farewell, and wait to see a farewell from the other person before killing the session. This is specially important when you are communicating with someone a long way away.

You could smile!!!

            You can put some expressions like (laughs) to express your feelings because we don't know, only reading, what is happening with the feelings of the person.

 

Help your friends

            Help your friend as soon as he asks help in something that it's not so clear to him.

 

Be human

            Remember the human: this rule "say" that "all you see is a computer screen. You don't have opportunity  to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning words - lonely written words - are all you've got". Well, over there, it's necessary to be kind and not to be offensive on line.

 

 

Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
            When someone makes a mistake -- whether it's a spelling error or a spelling flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer -- be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. If you do decide to inform someone of a mistake, point it out politely, and preferably by private email rather than in public.

 

            "Everybody was a 'newbie' at one time or another! Be patient with those who are new to the internet. If someone shows poor Netiquette, don't get angry with them. Politely respond and inform them of their error. Usually, the other person will be thankful for the advice, and you'll find yourself making a new friend. Occasionally, you'll bump into someone that you just don't see eye to eye with. In those cases, sometimes all you can do is agree to disagree." I've met some very rude people and this kind of person makes you feel bad about yourself, and some people even give up learning because of these rude people.

Sharing your knowledge is fun. It's a long-time net tradition.
            Sharing what you know about the Internet with the others is a very good thing, this exchange of information is great, because you can help people and also learn a lot of things.

 

 

Identify yourself.
            Never send an e-mail without including your name and contact information at the bottom of the e-mail. Similarly, don't post forum messages without identifying yourself.

Use descriptive titles.
            The subject line tells people what your message is about before they read it. People with limited time can decide whether to read it at that time, delete it or save it for later. The title space is limited and they are truncated after the space is filled, so keep them short and to the point.