Discover

'Netiquette' (portmanteau of "network etiquette") is the convention on electronic forums ( Usenet, mailing lists, live chat, and Internet message boards) to facilitate efficient interaction. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855^[1]. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to community. The points most strongly emphasized about USENET netiquette often include avoiding cross-posting, using simple electronic signatures, and other techniques used to minimize the effort required to read a post. Netiquette guidelines posted by IBM for employees utilizing Second Life in an official capacity, however, focus on basic professionalism, maintaining a tenable work environment, and protecting IBM's intellectual property. ^[2] Similarly, some Usenet guidelines call for use of unabbreviated English^[3][4] while users of online chat protocols like IRC and instant messaging protocols like SMS often encourage trends in the opposite direction.

Contents

History

Common characteristics

External links

History

Netiquette originated in the pre-world wide web days when text-based email, Telnet, Usenet, Gopher, Wais, and ftp dominated internet traffic, which was primarily used by educational and research bodies. At that time it was considered somewhat indecent to make commercial public postings and the limitations of insecure, text-only communications demanded the community have a common set of rules. The term "netiquette" has been in use since as early as 1988, as evidenced by early posts of the satirical Dear Emily Postnews column.
^[5]

Common characteristics

Variations in etiquette between communities using similar technologies can be seen when comparing standards governing wiki editors: IBM's Redwiki guidelines threaten the loss of editing privileges over factual mistakes^[6], while Memory Alpha^[7] and other public wikis take the open-source inspired tact that "false or misleading information" should simply be corrected, barring apparent malice. However, both projects urge editors not to permit themselves a sense of ownership over a given article, as does the Wikipedia.^[8]
Common rules for e-mail^[9] and USENET such as avoiding flamewars and spam are constant across most mediums and communities. Other commonly shared points, such as remembering that one's posts are or can easily be made public, are generally intuitively understood by publishers of web pages and posters to USENET. On more private protocols, however, such as email and SMS, some users take the privacy of their posts for granted. One on one communications, such as private messages on chat forums and direct SMSes may be considered more private than other such protocols, but infamous breaches surround even these relatively private media. For example, Paris Hilton's Sidekick was hacked in 2005, resulting in the publication of her private photos, SMS history, address book, et al.^[10] More substantially, an uncivil group email sent by Cerner CEO Neal Patterson to managers of a facility in Kansas City concerning "Cerner's declining work ethic" read, in part "The parking lot is sparsely used at 8 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers - you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing; or YOU do not CARE ... In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you."^[11] However, after the email was forwarded to hundreds of other employees, it quickly leaked to the public. On the day that the email was posted to Yahoo!, the companies stock price fell by over 22%^[12] from a high of $1.5 billion USD. ^[13]
=References=
1. RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines
2. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201201541
3. Zen and the Art of the Internet - Usenet News
4. Links to Prof. Timo Salmi's FAQ material
5. Dear Emily Postnews (An alternate USENET netiquette guide)Evidence of use of "netiquette" from 1988
6. http://www-941.haw.ibm.com/collaboration/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=6172
7. http://memory-alpha.org/en/index.php?title=Memory_Alpha:Introduction&oldid=593870
8.
9. ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to... Writing Well'' By Laurie Rozakis, http://books.google.com/books?id=YFIEfqL48AMC&pg=PA348&dq=netiquette&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=t9ZuKcbWOymIy9oNrRAy9ZfAikI#PPA348,M1
10. http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/20/paris-hiltons-hacked-sidekick-releases-unedited-tell-all/2
11. http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/26/smbusiness/zerocover_fsbbillion_fsb/
12. http://www.itworld.com/Sec/UIR010427securitynl2/
13. ''E-Mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-Mail and Digital Communications''
By Randolph Kahn & Nancy Flynn http://books.google.com/books?id=Q9CbhiflZh0C&pg=PA45&dq=netiquette&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=5jsrxx0u3qWX1_d4KXCl-_4Tc_4#PPA47,M1

External links

★ CNN Netiquette

★ The Telegraph ''Bootcamp 71: newsgroups part 2, netiquette'', 2002

★ CNET ''A new sort of online protocol'', 1997

★ Salon ''Miss Manners, Up Yours!'', 1997

★ BusinessWeek ''Techno Tact'', 1997