About Proper Netiquette
Netiquette, a shortened slang term for etiquette on the Internet, is a set of general guidelines accepted by most people to keep communication civilized and smoothly flowing. Just as in face-to-face society, polite rules of behavior govern our actions and reactions. Personal responsibility for our actions is even more imperative on the Internet, where a slip of the keyboard can result in insults and isolation from the web community.
Other People Are Reading
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Typing and Yelling
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One of the most commonly made mistakes by people new to the Internet is the practice of typing a message or email in all capital letters. To the Internet reader, this is considered "shouting" and is about as welcome as someone having a very loud conversation in a movie theater. While typing in all caps might be easier to read, it's also much easier to offend. Normal sentence structure with a capital letter at the beginning and lower case letters following is the accepted norm.
Posting and Replying
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Replying to posts on bulletin boards and newsgroups gets you involved in the conversation. Since there's so much to read on the Internet, simple netiquette suggests a light touch with the "Reply" button. When replying, the software will often list the entire post you're replying to; delete the portions of the original post not relevant to your response. This makes the ongoing conversation much easier to read.
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A Case of the 'Me-toos'
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It's natural to want to be a part of the discussion, but remember that other Internet citizens will listen only if you have something to add to the conversation. One mistake so often repeated by Internet newcomers, or newbies, has become an old joke: the people who simply reply "Me too!" to any conversation. Feel free to reply to the thread with your fleshed-out opinion and you'll rarely be ignored.
Emoticons
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When you're having a discussion over the Internet, it's occasionally difficult to determine the meaning behind someone's words; to solve this, emoticons were developed to express emotion missing from text-only contact. Emoticons were originally small pictures made from keyboard symbols and read sideways like this smiley face :). Now, emoticons can also be pictures or animations. Using them to make your message clear shows good netiquette and lets your personality shine through.
Email
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Sending email is one of the Internet's great benefits, as long as you avoid some basic newbie mistakes. When sending a message to a group of people, refrain from using just the Carbon Copy option in your email software, since this lets anyone who receives it see all the addresses receiving the message. Instead, use Blind Carbon Copy, which hides the addresses and makes it less likely for spammers to get them. Remember, nothing is ever truly private on the Internet, so your email address and even your message could end up in front of a stranger's eyes.
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References
- Photo Credit Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
