What is Netiquette?
Simply stated, it's network etiquette -- that is,
the etiquette of cyberspace. And "etiquette" means "the
forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required
in social or official life." In other words, Netiquette is a set of
rules for behaving properly online.
When you enter any new culture -- and cyberspace has its own culture -- you're liable to commit a few social blunders. You might offend people without meaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offense when it's not intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forget that you're interacting with other real people -- not just ASCII characters on a screen, but live human characters.
So, partly as a result of forgetting that people online are still real,
and partly because they don't know the conventions, well-meaning cybernauts,
especially new ones, make all kinds of mistakes.
The book Netiquette has a dual purpose: to help net newbies minimize their mistakes, and to help experienced cyberspace travelers help the newbies. The premise of the book is that most people would rather make friends than enemies, and that if you follow a few basic rules, you're less likely to make the kind of mistakes that will prevent you from makingfriends.
The list of core rules below, and the explanations that follow, are excerpted from the book. They are offered here as a set of general guidelines for cyberspace behavior. They won't answer all your Netiquette questions. But they should give you some basic principles to use in solving your own Netiquette dilemmas.
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/introduction.html
The 10 Core Rules of Netiquette
Here are the ten golden rules of proper Internet
Manners. For all you serial-texters, please head Rule #1 to avoid communication
disasters!
1) Spell check and proof read all written internet
communication because errors diminish the credibility of the message.
2) Do not write in all capital letters because all
caps are considered shouting when written on the internet. a
3) Tell the truth online because honesty creates the
best online experience. Do not lie in account profiles.
4) Do not do things online you would not do in
reality. Be yourself, you are not anonymous.
5) Do not flame or respond to flames because
personal insults are uncivilized and netiquette is civilized.
6) Do not spam or follow pop-up and spam links
because they can lead to viruses, spyware, and malware.
7) Be conservative in em
ail you send and liberal in email you receive because quality is better than quantity.
ail you send and liberal in email you receive because quality is better than quantity.
8) Do not send email at night because normal people
sleep at night. Late night email may call your lifestyle into question.
9) Shop secure sites with Tranport Layer Security
(TSL) or Secure Socket Layer (SSL) because it protects your data. The padlock in
the bottom of your browser or the site starting with https: not
http: indicate they are on SSL.
10) Use discretion when sharing information online
for personal and professional privacy reasons.
