Why Netiquette?

Today's web browsers are shipped with default settings that look cool and sophisticated to marketeers who regard anything less than the latest hyped machinery as boring and old-hat. In their place and in the right circumstances this is fine. But flash is not cool when it comes to basic communications on the Internet when your recipients really are interested more in what you say than the way you say it.

This is especially true when you join mailing lists related to your interests.

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Basic netiquette.

When sending messages to mailing lists, please observe the rules of netiquette. These include the following

1. Who to reply to:
Some people have to pay for incoming mail based on the size and amount of that mail. Please remember this when you reply to a message. Stop first and consider whether your response is really of interest to the whole group, or should be privately addressed to the author of the message.

On some lists, when you press "reply to" in your mail program, the address displayed is that of the list. On others it is just the sender's address. Make sure the "reply to" address is the one you want. If the default reply address points to the list it is very easy to address private replies to the whole list without noticing. In other cases messages intended for the whole list go only to a single email address.

2. Mail settings:
Please set your mail program so that you post messages in plain/text and not in HTML or other settings such as "multipart/alternative".

Some email systems strip the headers off, so people on those systems can only reply to you directly if you sign your message with your name AND email address. This is much appreciated!

A number of mail-servers cannot accept mail with 8-bit ascii characters in the message header (areas such as "from" and "subject" and the beginning of the message). Please be aware that some members may not get your messages if you use these characters, which include umlauted characters, accent marks, etc.

3. Subject lines:
Please try to be specific in your subject line. Interests and subjects discussed within a list can vary widely; this will help those not interested in your particular topic to move through their mail more quickly. This is especially true of topics (or, "threads") which have been under discussion for a while. Sometimes the subject of later messages has wandered far afield from that of the original posting and the subject heading needs to be updated!

4. Quoting previous messages:
It is often necessary to quote PART of a letter in order to put your reply into context. The usual rule is that you should never quote more than your reply, but it depends on circumstance. Over-quoting of previous messages is especially annoying to digest subscribers. It is not difficult and only takes a moment to edit out all but the essential parts of the quoted message to which you are replying. In particular, you should edit out the "bottom banner" with details of how to unsubscribe from the list as most list servers will add a new banner to your post before distributing it.

5. No attachments:
Please do not send attachments (they appear as an undecodable lump in digests). If you have an attachment you would like to share, make the offer to send it privately to those interested or post it on a website and supply the URL.

6. Bounced messages:
If your mail gateway goes down for several days, or if your address becomes undeliverable for some reason (like "mailbox full") for more than a short while - usually 2 or 3 days - you will be unsubscribed from the list and will need to resubscribe.

7. Tolerance:
You need to be patient with your fellow subscribers. Sometimes we make mistakes and post messages we should not have posted, or posted to the incorrect address. Since the message comes back to us as a subscriber, we quickly discover our own mistakes. Unless the offense is repeated, it need not be pointed out. Such helpful messages, despite being sent with the best of intentions, only cause hard feelings, particularly if they arrive after an apology has been made to the list.

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More information on Netiquette can be found at
http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/docs/rfc1855.html

Another source of excellent information is Arlene H. Rinaldi's website at
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/netiquette.html

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An answer to the question "What is wrong with sending HTML and MIME messages?" can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1236/nomime.html
This page also gives information on how to set the appropriate options for sending plain/text messages from within several popular email programes.

Information specific to webtv users can be found at
http://members.tripod.co.uk/netmiser/webtv.htm

Cyndi Howells also gives information on how to turn off HTML at
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/listowners/html-off.htm

Feedback and suggestions will be welcome.
Send all comments by email to netmiser@cryogen.com

Last updated: 2nd January 2000.