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Be nice – follow netiquette. |
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Written by Tony Phelps
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Thursday, 17 November 2005 |
Most forms of human communication follow established ways and means,
the “social rules” that people are expected to use or they risk being
seen as weird, impolite, or rude. Collectively known as etiquette,
there are similar conventions to follow for your online communications.
Of course, in the IT world there has to be a unique name for
everything. Alas, “e-etiquette” doesn’t slip off the tongue too easily,
so using the usual formula of simply sticking an “e-“ at the front is
no good. Since we use the ‘net (ie. internet) for a lot of our
electronic communication, the word netiquette was brought into being.
Netiquette applies to emails, online chat, newsgroups, and all the
related forms of communicating electronically. Although there are some
more advanced intricacies which can indicate how IT literate you are,
or how much IT experience you have, the underlying principle is the
same as for any other form of communication – be nice.
Basic good netiquette includes not using Caps Lock when typing. If you
send someone some text which is all uppercase, IT IS GENERALLY
INTERPRETED AS SHOUTING (see what I mean!). Remember that you are
communicating with a person, not a computer, so try to act the same as
you would if s/he were sitting next to you. Bear in mind the context –
foul language may be acceptable between some people, but not between
others. Don’t send large attachments or multiple emails unless you are
sure the receiver will appreciate them (noone likes an Inbox full of
stuff they don’t want or don’t have time to read). Be gentle on other
people who are less IT experienced than you, or aren’t aware of
netiquette.
Bear in mind that online, you are invisible – only your words represent
you, and will be used to build an image of you by people that haven’t
met you. This can be a good thing, but it is unwise to lie about or
embellish yourself, you may meet one day!
There is much more to netiquette if you are interested (just as there
is much more to etiquette, too). A search on Google for the word will
give you plenty of further research, or just go to
www.albion.com/netiquette for a good introduction. |
