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Just as you would want to be treated, treat other online users respect. Using the Internet to harm others is not in the spirit of the Internet and can result in your privileges being revoked. You would not want somebody trying to ruin your Internet experience, so don't try to ruin someone else's.
Never send "hate mail" to anyone. Always think before sending an e-mail when you are angry. Try counting to ten, take a few deep breathes, sleep on it, do whatever is necessary to calm down before sending that e-mail. Once that e-mail is sent, there is almost no way to take it back. That "burning bridge" can be pretty hard to extinguish. Besides, e-mail can easily be forwarded. Never say something that you don't want repeated over the evening news.
Try to be selective to whom any message is being sent. You are responsible for the e-mail that you send out and can be held accountable for outgoing mail both legally and ethically. At any rate, e-mail is easily forwarded, so don't say anything that you wouldn't want repeated. Besides this, your e-mail usage is expected to obey computer usage terms. This means that using your e-mail account to forward offensive jokes and materials can result in your computer privileges being revoked. What one may consider a joke may be considered as harassment by another.
Never send unsolicited "junk" or "for-sale" e-mail to mass addresses. This is considered "spamming" and can lead to the loss off your Internet access. In fact, it is against U.S. law to "use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to any equipment which has the capacity to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line unto paper." This law allows individuals to sue the sender of such illegal "junk mail" for $500 per copy. Most states permit such actions to be files in small claims court.
Include a subject line for your e-mail that identifies what the content of your message is. Doing this helps the receiver sort through his or her e-mail easier, and refer to the message quicker. Additionally, try to stick to one subject per message. Jumping around can become confusing and hard to follow.
Try to keep your messages short and to the point. Nobody likes to read an excessively long e-mail message. If you are replying to e-mails and want to include the original message, consider editing the text to eliminate unnecessary elements to help keep the message short by taking out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply. Basically, take time to edit any quotations down to the minimum necessary to provide a context for your reply. Doing this will help your e-mail easy to read.
Don't type in all capitals. It is considered shouting, and it can be hard to read. There are alternatives to providing emphasis to a word or section of text. An asterisk, "*", can be used to surround a word or phrase to make a *stronger* point.
Use sarcasm and humor with care. Without face to face communications, jokes can be viewed as criticism or as an insult. When conveying emotion or when you are trying to be humorous, try to make use of emoticons.
Acronyms, while they help keep typing and messages short, should be kept to a reasonable level. Messages that are filled with acronyms can be confusing and annoying to the reader.
Created on March 7th, 2001.
Please direct questions and comments to: Webmaster.
