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 it to be stored somewhere).
Rules for discussion groups
Rule 4 has a number of implications for discussion group users. Most
discussion group readers are already spending too much time sitting at
the computer; their significant others, families, and roommates are drumming
their fingers, wondering when to serve dinner, while those network maniacs
are catching up on the latest way to housebreak a puppy or cook zucchini.
To whom should messages be directed?
In the old days, people made copies with carbon paper. You could only
make about five legible copies. So you thought good and hard about who
you wanted to send those five copies to.
Today, it's as easy to copy practically anyone on your mail as it is
not to. And we sometimes find ourselves copying people almost out of habit.
In general, this is rude. Before you copy people
on your messages, ask yourself whether they really need to know. If the
answer is no, don't waste their time. If the answer is maybe, think twice
before you hit the send key.
0 comments:
Post a Comment