Netiquette Rule 10: Be Forgiving of Other People's Mistakes

Everyone was a network newbie once. And not everyone has had the benefit of reading this book. So when someone makes a mistake -- whether it's a spelling error or a spelling flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer -- be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before reacting. Having good manners yourself doesn't give you license to correct everyone else.  If...

Netiquette Rule 9: Don't Abuse Your Power

There are people in cyberspace have more power than others. There are wizards in MUDs (multi-user dungeons), experts in every office, and system administrators in every system.  Knowing more than others, or having more power than they do, does not give you the right to take advantage of them. For example, sysadmins should never read private email.  (Source: Rule 9- The Core Rules of Netiquette) ...

Netiquette Rule 8: Respect Other People's Privacy

Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk drawers. So naturally you wouldn't read their email either.  Here is a cautionary instance happened in relation with this rule.   The case of the snoopy foreign correspondent   In 1993, a highly regarded foreign correspondent in the Moscow bureau of the Los Angeles Times was caught reading his coworkers' email. His colleagues became suspicious when system...

Netiquette Rule 7: Help Keep Flame Wars under Control

"Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. It's the kind of message that makes people respond, "Oh come on, tell us how you really feel." Tact is not its objective.  Flaming is a long-standing network tradition (and Netiquette never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read. And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve the heat.   But...

Netiquette Rule 6: Share Expert Knowledge

The strength of cyberspace is in its numbers. The reason asking questions online works is that a lot of knowledgeable people are reading the questions. And if even a few of them offer intelligent answers, the sum total of world knowledge increases. The Internet itself was founded and grew because scientists wanted to share information. Gradually, the rest of us got in on the act.  So do your part. Despite the long lists of no-no's in this...

Netiquette Rule 5: Rule 5: Make Yourself Look Good Online

Know what you're talking about and make sense Pay attention to the content of your writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about -- when you see yourself writing "it's my understanding that" or "I believe it's the case," ask yourself whether you really want to post this note before checking your facts. Bad information propagates like wildfire on the net. And once it's been through two or three iterations, you get the same distortion effect...

Netiquette Rule 4: Respect Other People's Time and Bandwidth

The word "bandwidth" is sometimes used synonymously with time, but it's really a different thing. Bandwidth is the information-carrying capacity of the wires and channels that connect everyone in cyberspace.  When you accidentally post the same note to the same newsgroup five times, you are wasting both time (of the people who check all five copies of the posting) and bandwidth (by sending repetitive information over the wires and requiring...