netiquette
<convention, networking> /net'ee-ket/ or /net'i-ket/ Network etiquette.
The conventions of politeness recognised on Usenet and in mailing lists, such as
not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups and refraining from commercial
advertising outside the biz groups.
The most important rule of netiquette is "Think before you post". If what you
intend to post will not make a positive contribution to the newsgroup and be of
interest to several readers, don't post it! Personal messages to one or two
individuals should not be posted to newsgroups, use private e-mail instead.
When following up an article, quote the minimum necessary to give some context
to your reply and be careful to attribute the quote to the right person. If the
article you are responding to was posted to several groups, edit the
distribution ("Newsgroups:") header to contain only those groups which are
appropriate to your reply, especially if the original message was posted to one
or more inappropriate groups in the first place.
Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post. Check the spelling and
grammar. Keep your lines to less than 70 characters. Don't post test messages
(except to test groups) - wait until you have something to say. When posting
humorous or sarcastic comments, it is conventional to append a smiley, but don't
overuse them.
Before asking a question, read the messages already in the group and read the
group's FAQ if it has one. When you do post a question, follow it with "please
reply by mail and I will post a summary if requested" and make sure you DO post
a summary if requested, or if only a few people were interested, send them a
summary by mail. This avoids umpteen people posting the same answer to the group
and umpteen others posting "me too"s.
If you believe someone has violated netiquette, send them a message by _private
e-mail_, DO NOT post a follow-up to the news. And be polite, they may not
realise their mistake, they might be a beginner or may not even have been
responsible for the "crime" - their account may have been used by someone else
or their address forged.
Be proud of your postings but don't post just to see your name in pixels.
Remember: your future employer may be reading.
Netiquette for Usenet Site Administrators.
"net.acceptable".
[Jargon File]
(1999-10-18)
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