[Values-ethics] submissions
Laina Raveendran Greene
laina at getit.org
Sat Apr 1 05:47:23 BST 2006
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Last Update 11/20/2005
Frequently Ask Questions
Electronic Netiquette
1. INTRODUCTION.
Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) is not like other media. As
more people participate in CMC forums around the world, the need for
a standard of netiquette becomes necessary. What follows is
a summary which characterizes a set of suggestions that can help the
people maintain harmonious relationships on CMC forums. These
suggestions are based on ethical principles, a
research report prepared by the Rand Corporation as part of a
National Science Foundation grant study, John Quarterman's book The
MATRIX and lessons learned through experience on CMC forums. These
suggestions will be revised over time as more people learn to apply
principles to correspondence in CMC forums.
2. WHAT IS NETIQUETTE?
2.1 Netiquette is a term used in CMC forums to describe the
etiquette and ethics followed by the citizens who use the forums.
Learning to use a CMC system without offending other users and
maximizing the benefit involves etiquette. Learning to use a system
without causing harm to others involves ethics.
2.2 The overriding principle that people should use when composing
a message or when replying to another is to endeavour to listen and
understand each others point of view, and disagreeing without demeaning
or insulting people personally.
2.3 We believe that principle of equality and respect, can best be
accomplished by following
these guidelines that we outline in the following sections.
3. SENDING MESSAGES.
3.1 Create single-subject messages whenever possible. Choose a
title that fits the subject and stick to it. If you need to bring in
another subject, consider posting an additional message. If you are
replying to another post, your mail program will probably generate a
heading that begins "Re:" and then inserts their heading. But if you
are changing the topic, going off in a new direction, consider
choosing a new heading that indicates the new direction.
3.2 Be Brief. Using many words is more likely to cause
misunderstandings than using a few well-chosen words. People are
also less likely to read long messages. More than a page or two is
probably too much.
3.3 Assume permanence and ubiquity. E-mail is not a secure medium
and many servers may be archiving list messages. Anything you post
to any CMC medium, or release through any resource sharing service
may be saved permanently, with or without your knowledge, and may be
read by any one, at any time, anywhere. Even on closed lists,
you should never send a message that would embarrass
you if it were published in the newspaper for all to see. If what
you wish to post should not appear as headlines on the New York
Times (or any other famous newspaper), then you probably should
not post it.
3.4 Remember your intended audience. When sending a message, keep
in mind your likely readership and tailor it to them. Use language,
references, and subjects that will be comprehensible to a diverse
audience. Do not use buzzwords or other terms the audience
will not know, without defining them in your text. Be aware that
consultation on CMC's may be read by others that are
not explicitly on the mailing list.
3.5 Separate opinion from non-opinion, and clearly label each. Your
recipient, and especially unintended recipients further down the
forwarding path, might not know you as well as your friend, and may
not know about the subject matter of the message well enough to
distinguish opinion from fact.
3.6 If you must express emotion in a message, clearly label it.
Sarcasm, humor, and irony often do not work in a message. Someone
who knows your acerbic wit less well might not get it. The tradition
of labeling emotions has developed for two good reasons: (1) People
feel strongly about many subjects, and want to express the strength
of their feelings, and (2) there have been many examples of
misinterpreted messages, in which emotions were misinterpreted or
confused with the other content of the message. Labeling attempts at
humor, anger, or sarcasm as such allows those feelings to be
transmitted, but with less misinterpretation. Again, it helps to
remember that there could well be readers of your message at a
different place and time for whom even your labeled emotions might
be inappropriate. Remember that the lists are, for the most
part, international and they reach friends of many different
cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Unfortunately, what is
considered amusing in one culture may be considered downright
insulting or vulgar in another. Therefore, it is always wisest to be
extremely careful about your choice of words and to be moderate in
what you write.
3.7 For example, if you are trying to be funny, you might choose to
add an "emoticon" such as :-) (which is called a smiley and indicates
a smiling face) or <g> or <grin> to indicating a grin, or even "(That
was a joke)" or its equivalent. To indicate you understood something
was funny, many people use acronyms like LOL (which means "I am
laughing out loud") or ROTFL ("Rolling on the floor laughing"). But
no matter how carefully you label something, there is always the
chance it will be misunderstood.
One good site for emoticons is:
http://www.windweaver.com/emoticon.htm >http://www.windweaver.com/emoticon.htm)
3.8 Identify yourself and your affiliations clearly. Include a
signature with your mail. This would ideally have your name, e-mail
address, and company or school (if relevant) in it; it may also have
a physical address or a quote or graphics. The reason that this is
important is because some mailers don't print the e-mail address of
the sender in the header of a letter. So if you get a letter that
you want to respond personally to, and there's no signature, you may
have no idea where to send the reply.
3.9 Avoid formatting problems. Adjusted right margins are hard to
read without proportional fonts. Lots of vertical white space takes
up space. Paragraph breaks, on the other hand, are very useful.
Also, the preference is to post in plain text format; HTML formatting
will confuse some mail programs and take up more bandwidth for those
who are paying by the line for their service. By the same token, you
should never post pictures or use backgrounds on your mail for the
same reason.
3.10 Post new ideas. If you have something to say and no one else
has said it, do so. But try not to repeat what has already been
said, except in brief confirmation.
3.11 Avoid the use of acronyms in CMC messages. Spell out all
names.
3.12 Remember the difference between the 'list'
and the 'administrative' address. The
latter reaches only E-mail conference coordinator, and does not
automatically go out to the whole list. Conversely, no one wants
to see 'Please add Joe Bob to "list' on the whole list.
The same goes for the majority of E-mail conferences.
3.13 Don't send copyrighted articles to the lists. This includes
articles and editorials from newspapers and magazines. Short quotes
and excerpts are fine, but you
really should not send an entire article without first calling the
publisher and getting permission. It's illegal in most countries.
On the other hand, if the material is available on the internet, it
is quite acceptable to post a URL (Uniform Resource Locator; the web
address which typically has the form
"http://www.something.something..." to it.)
3.14 Unless you can personally vouch for the authenticity of such
requests, do NOT share any stories about "help so-and-so by XYZ" or
"so-and-so is giving XYZ away" or even articles about "XYZ causes
cancer". The majority of such stories, also called urban legends,
are for the most part based on folklore that is passed around mailing
lists periodically, wasting the time and energy of everyone who
receives them. Before ever passing on anything that looks too good
or too sensational to be true look it up on the following sites.
You will probably find it there:
< http://www.snopes.com >
< http://www.urbanlegends.com >
< http://urbanlegends.about.com >
3.15 Do NOT post any virus alerts to the list. If you receive a
notice of a virus, forward it to the list managerand the list managers will
verify its authenticity before posting
it to the lists. Many virus hoaxes now circulate the Internet
mailing lists periodically, and again waste the time of everyone who
receives them. For more information about viruses, a good source is
< http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/ >http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac >
3.16 Do NOT send attachments to any list. The list server
cannot handle them. Instead explain what it is about and tell people
who are interested to write you directly and ask for it.
3.17 Do NOT send pictures or large files to the list. Instead, send
a message that offers to share the file directly with anyone who asks
for it.
3.18 Cite sources. When presenting an idea that originated with
someone else, give the proper credit, either by naming the source or
by citing a formal bibliographic reference.
3.19 Keep the list of recipients and Cc:s to a minimum. In one
sense, it is too easy to send electronic mail. Electronic mailboxes
fill up with peripheral material that needs to be scanned and
continuously culled. If one of your recipients decides that someone
else needs to see a message, it can be forwarded at that time.
4. RECEIVING AND RESPONDING TO MESSAGES
4.1 If sending a reply to the list, you seldom need to include a
copy to the originator of the message. After all, they are on the
list as well and can read your reply along with everyone else.
4.2 Subscribers to discussion list servers are asked to ensure
that their mail program is not set to send Reply Receipts as it has
the potential to considerably increase the traffic on the network and
would therefore slow the network down. There is no great advantage
to the sender in having this feature turned on since the original
message will be confirmed as having been sent when they receive it
from the list server.
4.3 Avoid responding while emotional. Wait a few minutes or hours,
or even until the next day. Emotion feeds on emotion, especially in
CMC media, where body language and tone of voice are not present.
Wait and read other responses. Consider asking for clarification.
If you are still emotional when responding, say so. If you have
thoughts you need to get down while emotional, write them in a
separate text file and save it. Later you can review it while you
are not so emotional.
4.4 If a message generates emotions, look again. One of the most
surprising things about electronic mail is the ease with which
misinterpretations arise. People are used to reading body language,
voice intonation, and numerous other cues when interpreting messages
delivered in conversation, or even on the telephone. Those cues are
missing in electronic mail, and what was meant as a casual comment,
or an attempt at humor or irony, is misinterpreted. Even small
misinterpretations have a tendency to mushroom. Messages between two
correspondents may become more stilted and formal, until what started
as a casual exchange of messages becomes a set of diplomatic
communiqués. What at first glance was offensive can often be
interpreted, on rereading, as merely a poor choice of words in a
hasty message -- words that might have been casually used, then
forgotten, in a face-to-face conversation, but that linger on the
printed page (or phosphor screen). It might help to consider the
message as a written verbal communication, rather than real writing.
4.5 Assume the honesty and competence of the sender. Giving someone
the benefit of the doubt isn't a bad rule of thumb, especially when
they're 3000 miles and three time zones away.
4.6 Consider to whom you should respond. If the message was sent to
a distribution list, do you really want your answer to go out to that
entire list? Wouldn't it keep the electronic clutter down to respond
only to the sender, even if that means editing out the name of the
distribution list in the Cc: field your text editor so helpfully
supplied? There's a nice compromise: Send an answer only to the
sender, with the P.S.: If you think this response merits wider
distribution, feel free to do so. That way, the original sender can
batch together responses received, and provide a coherent update to
the issue (giving you credit, of course, for your insightful
contribution to the debate).
4.7 Give the benefit of the doubt. Mistakes, misunderstandings, and
ignorance are far more common than maliciousness. Don't take offense
without evidence. See section 3 above about this subject.
4.8 Respond to the topic, not the person. Try to separate opinion
from non-opinion while reading a message, so you can respond
appropriately. Avoid ad hominem attacks and try to understand what
the person is saying. If you can't tell from what they wrote, ask.
** If you feel that they have made some minor mistake, consider if
it is worth the cost in human feelings to correct them or if it would
be kinder to interpret for yourself what they are really trying to
say.
*** If you feel you must criticize someone, attempt to give them a
chance to respond. If you comment on the style of a message, respond
to the content as well.
4.9 When in the middle of debating a topic, pause before responding
to see if your ego is involved in your response. If so, then it is
probably time to take a break until you can again address the issue
'without the least trace of passion.'
4.10 Read other messages before responding. Don't dash off a message
making an obvious response; somebody else has probably already made
the same response. Read all the relevant messages first to see if
you're the first to make the response.
4.11 Do be encouraging and polite. New users (and often old ones as
well) tend to be hesitant. Encourage them when they do well. The
most effective encouragement is often a simple response acknowledging
a posting.
4.12 Take personal conversations off-list. That is, use private
e-mail exchanges, so that the rest of the CMC conference does not
receive irrelevant mail. Please note that many mail editors
automatically put the CMC conference into the CC: line when you reply
to a letter sent to it. If you don't want your personal mail to go
to a multitude of people, you must explicitly remove the mailing list
from the CC: line.
4.13 When responding to a letter, please do not include an entire
copy of the original mail, unless it's very, very short. Excerpts
are fine, as long as they are clearly set off from your commentary
-- with indentation, for example, or > signs:
4.14 When responding to a thread that has been going for a while, do
not include the whole messages posted prior to yours more than two
messages back. Do not include the whole message posted previously if
an excerpt will do as well. Do not include any of the previous
message unless it is necessary. You must assume that other people
have been following that thread just as you have and do not need to
see all previous messages to understand your response. Include in
your response only what is really needed to make your response
understood. It is sufficient to just include the message header with
the from address, the date and time and subject line, then anyone can
find their copy of the original.
4.15 Be careful with private correspondence. Do not redistribute
private correspondence without permission.
5. ACTING AS A COORDINATOR/LEADER OF AN INTEREST GROUP
5.1 Perform relevant groupings. It is helpful to readers when
messages received on a common topic from diverse sources are grouped
together in a packet message. Readers may well detect common threads
or issues that would otherwise have remained obscure. Also, the
packet can be filed by subject matter as one unit, not many.
5.2 Use uniform packaging, especially in the Subject: line. If some
part of the message header of messages routed within an interest group
have some key word or phrase in common, these messages can be filtered
out and organized by recipients using scan and file functions common
in many message systems. Perhaps this can be as simple as the To:
line containing the name of the interest group.
5.3 Exercise reasonable editorship. Perhaps a world without
censorship would be nice, but we're not there yet. Messages that are
not relevant should be excluded, as should ones that are sufficiently
tasteless to be offensive. But it is important that opinions
(preferably labeled as such) be given a hearing. There also tends to
be a lot of redundancy of messages and questions in these interest
groups. New people are joining all the time, and asking questions
that have been answered before. The group coordinator provides a very
useful function by excluding these messages from continued widespread
distribution, and pointing the sender (individually) to the group
archives for the answer. If it is a topic that appears to be of
extreme continuing interest, periodic broadcast messages can alert
new participants to the relevant archives.
5.4 Timeliness is important. This medium permits rapid
communication, and that rapidity should be retained. The coordinator
should not sit on collections of messages too long ( I'll just wait
until I've got six messages to send as a group on this topic ...).
Electronic dialogs that retain their momentum depend on this
immediacy. In most cases, a 48-to-72 hour holding function for
editing and grouping purposes should not be exceeded.
NOTE -- For further reading please refer to:
a) R-3283-NSF/RC - Towards an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail
by Norman Z. Shapiro, and Robert H. Anderson July1985; and
b) The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide
by John S. Quarterman, Digital Press, 1990, p 34-38.
Do You Have Additions/Corrections for this FAQ? This FAQ is a flexible
and evolving document. Your inputs help shape the information in this
FAQ. Please send all additions and corrections to BCCA-CC at bcca.org.
FAQ #3
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