RFC 1855 (rfc1855) - Page 4 of 21

Netiquette Guidelines

RFC 1855                 Netiquette Guidelines              October 1995


    - Know whom to contact for help.  Usually you will have resources
      close at hand.  Check locally for people who can help you with
      software and system problems.  Also, know whom to go to if you
      receive anything questionable or illegal.  Most sites also
      have "Postmaster" aliased to a knowledgeable user, so you
      can send mail to this address to get help with mail.

    - Remember that the recipient is a human being whose culture,
      language, and humor have different points of reference from your
      own.  Remember that date formats, measurements, and idioms may
      not travel well.   Be especially careful with sarcasm.

    - Use mixed case.  UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.

    - Use symbols for emphasis.  That *is* what I meant.  Use
      underscores for underlining. _War and Peace_ is my favorite
      book.

    - Use smileys to indicate tone of voice, but use them sparingly.
      :-) is an example of a smiley (Look sideways).  Don't assume
      that the inclusion of a smiley will make the recipient happy
      with what you say or wipe out an otherwise insulting comment.

    - Wait overnight to send emotional responses to messages.  If you
      have really strong feelings about a subject, indicate it via
      FLAME ON/OFF enclosures.  For example:
      FLAME ON:  This type of argument is not worth the bandwidth
                 it takes to send it.  It's illogical and poorly
                 reasoned.  The rest of the world agrees with me.
      FLAME OFF

    - Do not include control characters or non-ASCII attachments in
      messages unless they are MIME attachments or unless your mailer
      encodes these.  If you send encoded messages make sure the
      recipient can decode them.

    - Be brief without being overly terse.  When replying to a message,
      include enough original material to be understood but no more. It
      is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including
      all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material.

    - Limit line length to fewer than 65 characters and end a line
      with a carriage return.

    - Mail should have a subject heading which reflects
      the content of the message.





Hambridge                    Informational