Netiquette

[Jonathan Hutchins]

I did a quick google on netiquette (under a couple of different spellings), and 
the guidelines that many of us feel are gospel have clearly been lost.  I don't 
remember where the file for Usenet etiquette was, and most of the "guides" 
these days are touchy-feely be-nice-to-your-neighbor vagueness that really 
doesn't help anybody.

The thing to do if you post to a public list is to find and read the FAQ for 
that list, which may or may not include format guidelines.  So, to quote the 
KCLUG list posting FAQ:

"".

File not found, baby.  No such animal.

It's clear from the recent threads that some of us feel there should be 
standards.  It's clear that one of the popular standards is "if someone asks 
you to do something out of politeness, refuse and attack them".

In spite of some of what's been said, this isn't a "new guys vs. old guys" 
thing.  Jason Clinton is clearly a new guy.  I'm pretty clearly an old guy.  
Jason doesn't mind HTML; I don't mind "top posting".

My reason for the latter is specific to this list.  In lists (or other 
sequential group discussion formats), you occasionally have a lot of different 
threads that progress slowly, and sometimes most of the people posting are 
drawn in to a general current topic (or a limited number of them).  

Under the former circumstances, it helps to be able to pick up a single message 
and read the whole thread, in order, at least as it pertains to the current 
comment.  Hopefully, the poster will have trimmed out all the "yeah, I think so 
too" duplications and side issues.

However, in the KCLUG list we tend to limit our selves to a few topics, and to 
post fairly quickly to them.  In addition, the comments are mostly germane - 
they convey new information.  Under those circumstances, I like being able to 
see the new information at the head of the message, but to be able to scroll 
down if I need background.

The problem is when you mix methods, and end up with a bunch of conversational 
elements out of sequence.  (For some reason my wife does this to me all the 
time when she sends information from work.)

There are some standards of netiquette that evolved on FIDONet and USENET that 
are generally expected on discussion groups.  As a former FIDONet moderator, I 
propose to list some of them, and they can be commented on here as an 
alternative to the current round of name-calling and sticking-out of tongues.  
This list has already expressed a general disinterest in rules, these aren't 
meant to be rules by which messages be moderated by someone, they're just a 
troll for guidelines that might be offered to assist people in participating.

The over-all rule is that the list exists to exchange information, not to 
glorify your ego.  There are fora where the opposite is true, these gave us the 
wonders of "all your base...", but most mailing lists are informational.

1) When posting to a technical list, post in the "native" language; post in 
English to an English speaking list.

2) Post in standard mixed-case ASCII unless you are in a list where special 
characters or art convey something.  ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING, all lower 
case is hard to read.

3) Keep signature and tag files to a minimum.  Nobody on the LUG list cares 
that you can draw the USS Enterprise with your keyboard (or stole the image 
from someone who could).

4) Trim your quotes.  We have all seen six page messages that consist entirely 
of one-line comments interleaved with headers and sig files.  Remove these, as 
well as portions of the message that are not relevant to your comment.

5) Quote your reply.  Include enough of the preceding discussion to make it 
clear what you are commenting on.  Remember rule 4, but don't just shoot 
replies into the blue.

6) Don't get cute with the quote character.  Although FIDONet mail clients had 
the ability to use and understand a number of  quoting formats*, few modern 
email clients can cope with anything but the traditional "greater than" 
sign ">".  Plus signs, smiley faces, and blue highlighting are not likely to 
turn out correctly on someone else's reader.  Nested marks can indicate the 
depth of a reply if they are kept consistent.  This must almost always be done 
by hand.

7) Watch your subject line.  If you are pushing the discussion in a new 
direction, or you realize it has drifted, modify it or begin a new subject.

8) Make a reasonable attempt at standard spelling and grammar.  If you know 
you're somewhat prone to spelling errors, use a spell checker if you can.  Some 
people find miss-spellings particularly jarring, and are unable to focus on 
what's being said because of the errors.  Syntactical errors muddy your 
meaning, and can lead to errors when compiling the outcome.

9) Be excellent to one another.  Try to focus on the technical issue at hand, 
avoiding ad-hominim attacks.

10) Think before you post.

If you're interested, we might even hammer these out into a "KCLUG Style Guide" 
that could be posted on the web site - AND IGNORED BY THOSE WHO CARE TO!

---------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through tarcanfel's horde/imp system