2. General Netiquette Guidelines
All INTRAA Online Community participants are required to respect the guidelines set out in the Rights and Responsibilities and this Netiquette guide. Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy should be handled by following the Grievance Procedure.
Rule 1. Remember the human. Never forget that the person reading your mail or posting is, indeed, a person, with feelings that can be hurt.
- Corollary 1: It's not nice to hurt other people's feelings.
- Corollary 2: Never mail or post anything you wouldn't say to your reader's face.
- Corollary 3: Avoid flaming.
Rule 2. Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.
- Corollary 1: Be ethical.
- Corollary 2: Breaking the law is bad Netiquette.
Rule 3. Know where you are in cyberspace.
- Corollary 1: Netiquette varies from domain to domain.
- Corollary 2: Lurk before you leap.
Rule 4. Respect other people's time and bandwidth.
- Corollary 1: It's OK to think that what you're doing at the moment is the most important thing in the universe, but don't expect anyone else to agree with you.
- Corollary 2: Post messages to the appropriate discussion group.
- Corollary 3: Try not to ask irrelevant questions on discussion groups.
- Corollary 4: Read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document.
- Corollary 5: When appropriate, use private email instead of posting to the group. Don't post personal information to the community unless you want anyone on the internet to have access to it.
- Corollary 6: Don't post subscribe, unsubscribe, or FAQ requests.
- Corollary 7: Don't waste expert readers' time by posting basic information.
- Corollary 8: If you disagree with the premise of a particular discussion group, don't waste the time and bandwidth of the members by telling them how stupid they are. Just stay away.
- Corollary 9: Conserve bandwidth when you retrieve information from a host or server.
- Corollary 10: Remove extraneous quoted material before sending a reply to posts and discussion lists.
Rule 5. Make yourself look good online.
- Corollary 1: Check grammar and spelling before you post.
- Corollary 2: Know what you're talking about and make sense.
- Corollary 3: Don't post flame-bait.
Rule 6. Share expert knowledge.
- Corollary 1: Offer answers and help to people who ask questions on discussion groups.
- Corollary 2: If you've received email answers to a posted question, summarize them and post the summary to the discussion group.
Rule 7. Help keep flame wars under control.
- Corollary 1: Don't respond to flame-bait.
- Corollary 2: Don't post spelling or grammar flames.
- Corollary 3: If you've posted flame-bait or perpetuated a flame war, apologize.
Rule 8. Respect other people's privacy.
- Corollary 1: Don't read other people's private email.
- Corollary 2: Don't post private communications from others to a forum without the express permission of the individual(s) involved.
Rule 9. Don't abuse your power.
- Corollary 1: The more power you have, the more important it is that you use it well.
