Netiquette guidelines

While I stick by the content of what I said (http://tinyurl.com/rvdo),
methinks I was a bit harsh in tone on Bob Finnan. Though he has himself been
in breach of the following guidelines in the past he was quite right to
object to my postings insofar as they were in breach of article 16, below.
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1. Read both mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months before you
post anything. This helps you to get an understanding of the culture of the
group.

2. Do not blame the system administrator for the behavior of the system
users.

3. Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your
present or your next boss. Take care in what you write. Remember too, that
mailing lists and Newsgroups are frequently archived, and that your words
may be stored for a very long time in a place to which many people have
access.

4, Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they say does not
represent their organization (unless stated explicitly).

5. Remember that both mail and news take system resources. Pay attention to
any specific rules covering their uses your organization may have.

6. Messages and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't wander
off-topic, don't ramble and don't send mail or post messages solely to point
out other people's errors in typing or spelling. These, more than any other
behavior, mark you as an immature beginner.

7. Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group.

8. Forgeries and spoofing are not approved behavior.

9. Advertising is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and abhorred on
others! This is another example of knowing your audience before you post.
Unsolicited advertising which is completely off-topic will most certainly
guarantee that you get a lot of hate mail.

10. If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you
summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just enough
text of the original to give a context. This will make sure readers
understand when they start to read your response. Since NetNews, especially,
is proliferated by distributing the postings from one host to another, it is
possible to see a response to a message before seeing the original. Giving
context helps everyone. But do not include the entire original!

11. Again, be sure to have a signature which you attach to your message.
This will guarantee that any peculiarities of mailers or newsreaders which
strip header information will not delete the only reference in the message
of how people may reach you.

12. Be careful when you reply to messages or postings. Frequently replies
are sent back to the address which originated the post - which in many cases
is the address of a list or group! You may accidentally send a personal
response to a great many people, embarrassing all involved. It's best to
type in the address instead of relying on "reply."

13. Delivery receipts, non-delivery notices, and vacation programs are
neither totally standardized nor totally reliable across the range of
systems connected to Internet mail. They are invasive when sent to mailing
lists, and some people consider delivery receipts an invasion of privacy. In
short, do not use them.

14. If you find a personal message has gone to a list or group, send an
apology to the person and to the group.

15. If you should find yourself in a disagreement with one person, make your
responses to each other via mail rather than continue to send messages to
the list or the group. If you are debating a point on which the group might
have some interest, you may summarize for them later.

16. Don't get involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond to incendiary
material.

17. Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more than
gratuitous replies to replies.

18. Be careful with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will display
differently on different systems, and with different mailers on the same
system.

19. There are Newsgroups and Mailing Lists which discuss topics of wide
varieties of interests. These represent a diversity of lifestyles,
religions, and cultures. Posting articles or sending messages to a group
whose point of view is offensive to you simply to tell them they are
offensive is not acceptable. Sexually and racially harassing messages may
also have legal implications. There is software available to filter items
you might find objectionable.

http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/docs/rfc1855.html#3
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This newgroup doesn't appear to have any statement in its policy saying that
it subscribes to the above code of conduct. The only reference to
"netiquette" in the FAQs is "Before participating in Usenet you should make
sure that you have read at least the articles on netiquette in
news.announce.newusers". However, Google Groups currently turns up over 1000
such articles (http://tinyurl.com/rve2), and a strict interpretation of that
would, I'm sure, put us *all* in breach of the FAQs!

So, while this code of conduct may not be official policy here, I think we'd
be doing ourselves a big favour if we bore it in mind and, Bob, I'll stick
by it if you will!

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

This is much more helpful than the regular tirades that some people
inflict on this group. Some of it is, indeed, pretty standard
everywhere, but we can all forget that everyone was new to the
Internet at one time or another. There's nothing so obvious to one
group of people (particularly specialists, or "regulars") that it's
not news to someone else.

Thanks,
Jim