Netiquette





Netiquette (a contraction of "network etiquette") is a catch all term for
the conventions of politeness recognised on Usenet, in mailing lists, and
other electronic forums such as internet web boards. The conventions might
include such things as not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups and
refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups. RFC 1855
documents one set of conventions (it is fairly lengthy and comprehensive).

The most important rule of netiquette is "Think before you post". If what
you intend to post will not make a positive contribution to the newsgroup
and be of interest to several readers, don't post it! Personal messages to
one or two individuals should not be posted to newsgroups, use private
e-mail instead.

When following up an article, quote the minimum necessary to give some
context to your reply and be careful to attribute the quote to the right
person. If the article you are responding to was posted to several groups,
edit the distribution ("Newsgroups:") header to contain only those groups
which are appropriate to your reply, especially if the original message was
posted to one or more inappropriate groups in the first place.

Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post. Check the spelling
and grammar. Keep your lines to less than 70 characters. Don't post test
messages (except to test groups) - wait until you have something to say.
When posting humorous or sarcastic comments, it is conventional to append a
smiley, but don't overuse them.

Before asking a question, read the messages already in the group and read
the group's FAQ if it has one. When you do post a question, follow it with
"please reply by mail and I will post a summary if requested" and make sure
you DO post a summary if requested, or if only a few people were interested,
send them a summary by mail. This avoids umpteen people posting the same
answer to the group and umpteen others posting "me too"s.

If you believe someone has violated netiquette, send them a message by
private e-mail; do not post a follow-up to the news. And be polite; they may
not realise their mistake, they might be a beginner or may not even have
been responsible for the "crime" -- their account may have been used by
someone else or their address forged.

Be proud of your postings but don't post just to see your name in pixels.
Remember: your future employer may be reading.