Netiquette 101
-- This was posted on Internet Americas home page. dp
Netiquette or "Net Etiquette" is simply the protocol or the proper way to behave while on line. Netiquette was generated from the online community as an essential component to create order in the decentralized Internet world. So, when you go online, you must realize there is a certain way to act and a certain way you are expected to behave.
Here are some of the basic rules:
1.Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
2.Be Polite
3.Remember you are dealing with real people
4.DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS. Doing this indicates to people that you're shouting and it will most definitely annoy others.
5.Maintain ethics. Just because they can't see you doesn't mean it's an all out rudefest...and don't do anything illegal or anything that you would be ashamed to put your name on.
6.Think before you Type. Always remember, when you communicate online, your words are written and are forever immortalized in type. In fact there are computers whose only job is to save everything you ever write in a public forum, especially the newsgroups. Look at http://www.dejanews.com and search for me as the author and you'll see what I mean.
7.Lurk and Learn. This simply means when you enter into a Newsgroup or Chat Session, just hang back for awhile before you enter into the conversation.
8.Read The FAQS first!!! When checking out a specific Newsgroup, never jump in without reading the list of Frequently Asked Questions first. If you don't and ask a question already listed in the FAQ'S, you will get FLAMED.
9.Avoid Flaming whenever possible. "To Flame" means to communicate a specific criticism or opinion of another without any consideration to being tactful. Flaming is basically an all out, aggressive reprimand of an unacceptable behavior of another.
10.Never SPAM. What you say? Spamming is where one uses a large mailing list, USENET forum or another networked community and they send one message to a group of people who never asked for it in the first place! Why not Spam?? Because, in the Net community, it just won't fly!
11.Be Nice to Newbies!
Once you get online and feel confident, always remember, you were a Newbie once too...so, have patience, and be nice with new folks "online".
That Personal Touch: Emoticons and Acronyms! Hey ;-)
BTW,FWIW,IME,WYSIWYG.......
Translation....
"By the way, for what it's worth, in my experience, what you see is what you get!!"
These capitalized abbreviations were originally developed to shorten the amount of time spent on line, to get a specific point
across as well as present one's own personal flare. It's not necessary to utilize acronyms, however, if it suits your style, go for it! Here are a few more abbreviations for your espressive self!
ADN Any Day Now
AFK Away From Keyboard
AWGTHTGTTA? Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again?
B4N Bye for Now
BBS Bulletin Board Service
BIF Basis In Fact
BL Belly Laughing
BRB Be Right Back
BTW By The Way
CU See you
CUL See you Later
DTRT Do The Right Thing
FAQ Frequently Asked Question
FISH First In, Still Here
FYI For Your Information
GAL Get A Life
GIWIST Gee, I Wish I Said That
IAC In Any Case
IC I See
ILY I Love You
IME In My Experience
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IOW In Other Words
L8R Later
LOL Laughing Out Loud
NBIF No Basis In Fact
OIC Oh, I See
POV Point Of View
ROFL Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLAHMS Rolling On Floor Laughing And Holding My Sides
TTBOMK To The Best Of My Knowledge
WFM Works For Me
The way you typically use acronyms is to sprinkle them throughout your text. Now some people aren't very fond of using
acronyms and believe the words in their entirety have more impact. I'm sure you will run across some of these abbreviations in your Net explorations and this listing may be helpful for you to decipher the "secret code".
Another way to express your personality via email, chat, newsgroups, etc, is to express your own personal flare with
mini-graphics, created by using the digits on your key board. To end a sentence with a smile, you can simply type a colon : for a pair of eyes. A hypen - for a nose and one half of a paranthesis ) for a smile...( this one for a frown. J (my program will not allow a regular smiley!). All you have to do is tilt your head to the left and you'll notice the graphic has more meaning. Here's a list of a few more pictorial expressions which can spice up your communications. Utilizing these emoticons are not essential, but can be fun.
: - )
Smiley with Nose
: )
Smiley without nose
:->
Another Happy Face
:*)
Clowning Around
%-}
Silly
:-r
Bleahh (sticking tongue out)
:-f
Smirk
:-l
Disgusted
:-!
Foot in Mouth
:-J
tongue in cheek comment
:-o
shouting
:-b
Tongue stuck out
: - (
Unhappy Smiley
:-x
kiss
[[ name]]
hug!
:-X
not saying a word
Î-)
ink
(-_-)
Secret Smile
:@
What???
One thing is highly apparent in the Internet community. People are progressive and do appreciate good humor. Smiley's, as these graphics are generically referred to, are another way to add a "face" to your text!
