Netiquette

adapted from Writing Online: A Student’s Guide to the Internet and the World Wide Web, 2nd edition, by Eric Crump and Nick Carbone (Houghton Mifflin, 1998)

Donna Bowman, Ph.D., Honors College, University of Central Arkansas

The word netiquette combines “net,” short for “Internet,” and “etiquette.” Etiquette on the Internet, like etiquette everywhere else, works best when seasoned with a little tolerance, compassion, and humor. Good netiquette requires observing the customs of the Net, much as knowing the customs and habits of where you travel makes you more welcome. The Internet is foremost about bringing people together. As much as it is praised for the vast amount of information available to users, that information is secondary to the people with whom you can communicate.


Netiquette for Communicating on the Internet

Stand by your words.

You should always be accountable for what you write and say. Don’t write or send anything on the Internet (or anywhere else for that matter) that you are not ready to stand by. This does not mean you cannot change your mind or eventually come around to another point of view. It means you should think about what you say, and say it as clearly as you can. On the Internet, you exist primarily in the words you write. What you say is who you are in an online world; it is the only way most people online will ever know you.


End e-mail with your name and address.

People usually overlook this point of netiquette because they assume another user will be able to see or know their e-mail and name automatically. This is not always the case. Thus your name and address become important, especially when sending mail to a discussion list. Your address makes it easier for others to respond directly to you, but only if you include it at the end of the message. Your e-mail program will usually allow you to create a “signature” or “sig” file that is automatically appended to every message you send; check out that option.


Never leave the subject heading blank.

Many people have software that automatically deletes messages without a subject heading. Others use their own personal filer -- the delete key. Blank subject headings reduce your chances of being read; they cripple communication. On a discussion list, the name of the listserv is added to your subject line automatically. Make your subject line descriptive of what’s in your e-mail.


Cross-post appropriate messages only.

Some messages you read might encourage you to forward them, for example, announcements of contests or internships, virus warnings, or chain letters. Others might happen to coincide with a discussion you are having on a listserv or in another forum, like a classroom. You should cross-post these latter types only if you are certain the writer would not mind; the best way to be certain is to get permission.

Do not forward any messages of the former type to the listserv. In fact, don’t forward chain letters or virus warnings to anyone at all until you’ve checked them out to be sure they aren’t hoaxes -- and 99% of them are. Bookmark the following pages and check them before forwarding anything that urges you to “forward this e-mail to everyone you know”:

http://www.Vmyths.com/ -- clearing house for virus warnings and myths.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/mbody.htm?once=true& -- clearinghouse for e-mail that circulates urban legends.
http://www.fedcirc.gov/ -- the Federal Government’s Computer Incident Response Capability will contain information on any real threat.

Practice frugality.

We use the word frugality here, instead of the usual term brevity, to stress that we do not mean all messages must be short, but instead that all messages should try to use words as thoughtfully as possible for two reasons: people often have a lot of e-mail to sort through and may not bother to finish rambling messages, and being frugal increases your chances being understood.


Strive for clarity.

Clarity can suffer for any number of reasons. It is sometimes lost because the writer and reader do not share the same context or frame of reference. For example, on one list, a writer sent a message recommending an article in CCC. Many people on the list did not know CCC referred to a journal called College Composition and Communication. Some confusion is inevitable. However, there are steps you can take to keep it to a minimum. Try to put yourself in the position of your readers -- both as you write, and as you proofread your writing before sending it.


Give yourself a minute to think about a message before you write it.

Most electronic messages are written quickly; it is one of the charms of the medium. Especially in the realm of real-time chats and instant messaging, people know there will be more typos and misspellings because participants are literally writing as they think, and what they write is being read almost the instant it is keyed in.

However, in writing such as e-mail, newsgroup, and web discussion forums, messages are sent for others to read and respond to later. Since there is more of a time lag, people generally expect fewer errors than they do in real-time forums. When writing e-mail, try to take a moment to write the message first in your head. Then look it over before you send it.


Be tolerant of errors, including your own.

Taking care to avoid errors is best. However, you do not want to write e-mail as if you were taking a test. You will write both good messages and embarrassing ones, so treat errors kindly. Never publicly correct someone for an error in spelling or punctuation, especially since many e-mail programs lack spell-checking software (which cannot catch all errors, anyway). If an error distorts the meaning of a message beyond your understanding, e-mail the writer privately and ask for clarification.


Use accurate summaries and judicious quoting.

The Reply command on most e-mail and newsgroup reader programs offers you a choice of including the original message in your reply. If you say yes, delete any portion of the original message that is not relevant. For example, if you are responding to only two sentences in a forty-sentence message, delete all but those two sentences. You can summarize the other thirty-eight sentences in a line or two if needed.

Be sure to attribute what you have quoted, if you e-mail program does not do so automatically, by prefacing the quote with “Donna wrote: ...”


Keep cool if you’ve been flamed.

A flame is a message that is full of invective, spit, and fury. Flames vary in heat and intensity, and some are actually unintentional. Flaming can change the atmosphere of an Internet community the way a mugging changes the atmosphere of a street. On some groups, flaming is to be expected. Anywhere politics or social polity is discussed, there are likely to be flames. The worst flames attack a person’s character instead of his or her argument. Some newsgroups are famous for their flame wars, pitched battles of e-mail invectives. According to Chuq Von Rospach’s A Primer on How to Work with the USENET Community, one of the most common sources of flame wars is when people try to correct someone’s grammar or punctuation.

Many times people feel they’ve been flamed when in fact no flame was intended. Take a moment to consider what was written, and respond to it thoughtfully and patiently. If you are unsure of what the author intended, ask. If you have been flamed, it is better to respond with wit and humor. Even if you get a particularly virulent flame, defend yourself with tact. Be sure to criticize the argument and not the person.

Acknowledge people and resources on the Internet.

Correct attribution of sources has always been important in academic writing. This is perhaps even more true for the Internet. Whenever you borrow them or refer to online sources, be sure to acknowledge them. If you are unsure of the attribution policy of a site, check with your instructor or e-mail the site administrator.

Last updated: August 1, 2001