esn.net - Netiquette

Netiquette

E-Mail Responsibilities and Spamming
Ten steps to avoid being flamed in Usenet
The 10 Commandments for Computer Ethics
The World Wide Web

E-Mail and Files : User Responsibility

The content and maintenance of a user's electronic mailbox is the users responsibility:

Check E-mail daily and remain within your limited disk quota.

Delete unwanted messages immediately since they take up disk storage.

Keep messages remaining in your electronic mailbox to a minimum.

Mail messages can be downloaded or extracted to files then to disks for future reference.

Never assume that your E-mail can be read by no one except yourself; others may be able to read or access your mail. Never send or keep anything that you would not mind seeing on the evening news.

The content and maintenance of a user's disk storage area is the users responsibility:

Keep files to a minimum. Files should be downloaded to your personal computer's hard drive or to disks.

Routinely and frequently virus scan your system, especially when receiving or downloading files from other systems to prevent the spread of a virus.

Your files may be accessible by persons with system privileges, so do not maintain anything private in your disk storage area.

Spam - Spam - Spam

Spamming is generally defined as, but not limited to, using E-mail, Usenet or any other communication forum or service online for unsolicited business, chain letters or other bandwidth consuming pastimes that offends or harasses others online.

Any esn.net subscriber caught spamming, in any way, shape or form, will lose their account.

We all get junk mail at home. It's an accepted fact of life, at least in the U.S. So why is Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) -- a/k/a "spam" or "junk email" -- a problem?

To understand the problem of UCE, you must first understand what is most often advertised via UCE. There are many places on the Internet where copies of UCE are reposted by recipients and system administrators in order to help notify the Internet community about where UCE is originating. Surveying mailing lists like SPAM-L@EVA.DC.LSOFT.COM and USENET newsgroups in the news.admin.net-abuse.* hierarchy, you will see that there are very few reputable marketers using UCE to advertise goods and services. To the contrary, the most commonly seen UCEs advertise:

Chain letters
Pyramid schemes (including Multilevel Marketing, or MLM)
Other "Get Rich Quick" or "Make Money Fast" (MMF) schemes
Offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic web sites
Offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending UCE
Offers of bulk e-mailing services for sending UCE
Stock offerings for unknown start-up corporations
Quack health products and remedies
Illegally pirated software ("Warez")

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Ten steps to avoid being flamed in Usenet

What is a flame?. Flames are (violent verbal expressions of disapproval), misunderstandings, overreactions, and hurt feelings. If you are having problems posting messages into Usenet News, its time for a quick refresher course. Follow these simple steps and avoid being flamed, and you'll soon be on your way to becoming a regular contributor.

Important Do's and Don'ts

Please note that spamming(Posting of unsolicited business enterprises, chain letters, business claims, get rich quick schemes, etc.) are not tolerated from our server.
ANY OF THE ABOVE AND YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED

1.
Don't post a single solitary message until you've followed the general thread and theme of the newsgroup for a few days. READ THE FAQ! (frequently asked questions).
Do read the FAQ!, often this list contains all the previous questions asked and posted to the newsgroup.
2.
Don't include the entire contents of a previous posting in your reply.
Do cut mercilessly. Leave just enough to indicate what you're responding to. Never include mail headers except maybe the "From:" tag. If you can't figure out how to delete lines in your mailer software, paraphrase or type the quote material in your message.
3.
Don't reply to a point in a posting without quoting or paraphrasing what you're responding to and who said it. Reason: a dozen postings may occur between the original message and your reply. At some sites your reply may get there before the original.
Do quote (briefly) or paraphrase. If the original "Subject:" line was "esn.net!" make sure yours says "Re: esn.net!". Some reply functions do this automatically. By net convention, included lines are preceded by ">" (greater than signs). Some mail editors and newsreaders do this automatically. Others require you to do it manually or set the "indent character" to ">".
4.
Don't send silly messages saying "Why doesn't anyone say anything about X?" or "Who wants to talk about X?"
Do: Its always a risk to start a new topic (often called a thread). The group may have just finished a long, bitter war about that very subject. But if you want to take the risk, SAY SOMETHING yourself about the subject you're raising.
5.
Don't send lines longer than 70 characters. This is a kindness to the folks with terminal based mail editors and newsreaders. Some mail gateways truncate extra characters turning your intelligent prose into gibberish.
Do: Some mail editor tools only seem to insert line breaks for you, but actually don't, so that every paragraph is one immense line. Learn what your mail editor does.
6.
Don't SEND A MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS. CAPITALIZED MESSAGES ARE HARDER READ THAN LOWER CASE OR MIXED CASE.
Do use normal capitalization where necessary. Separate your paragraphs with blank lines. Make you message inviting to your potential readers.
7.
Don't betray confidences. It is all too easy to quote a personal letter in a posting to the entire group.
Do read the "To:" and "Cc:" lines in your message before you send it. Are you SURE you want the message to go there?
8.
Don't make statements which can be interpreted as official positions of your organization or offers to do business.
Do treat ever post as through you were sending a copy to your boss, minister, or your worst enemy.
9.
Don't rely on the ability of your readers to tell the difference between serious statements and satire or sarcasm. It's hard to write funny. It's even harder to write satire.
Do remember that no one can tear your tone of voice. Use emoticons (or smilies) like :-) or ;^) -- turn your head counter clockwise to see the smile. You can also use caps for emphasis or use net conventions for italics and underlines. (ie. HEY *you*!).
10.
Don't make a posting that contains little content in the body of the message (ie. "Me too"). This is most annoying when combined with (2) or (3) above. Ditto for "I don't know".
Do remember the immortal words of Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889): "Well timed silence hath more eloquence than speech".

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Ten Commandments for Computer Ethics

Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's files.
Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
Thou shalt not use or copy software for which you have not paid.
Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization.
Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write.
Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration and respect.

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World Wide Web

Do not include very large graphic images in your html documents. It is preferable to have postage sized images that the user can click on to "enlarge" a picture. Some users with access to the Web are viewing documents using slow speed modems and downloading these images can take a great deal of time.
When including video or voice files, include next to the description a file size, i.e (10KB or 2MB), so the user has the option of knowing how long it will take to download the file.
Keep naming standards for URL's simple and not overly excessive with changes in case. Some users do not realize that sites are case sensitive or they receive URL's verbally where case sensitivity is not easily recognizable.
When in doubt about a URL, try accessing the domain address first, then navigate through the site to locate the specific URL. Most URL's begin with the node address of WWW followed by the site address, i.e:

Examples:

http://www.cern.ch
http://www.fau.edu
http://www.ibm.com
http://www.cpsr.org

A URL which includes only an image map and no text might not be accessible to those users that do not have access to a graphical Web browser. Always include the option of text links in your URL documents.
W3 connections can be *very* high bandwidth consumers. With graphical web browsers, when graphic images are not necessary to obtain information it is a good idea, both in terms of the speed of the session, and to conserve bandwidth, to set the options to "turn off" or "delay" inline images.
URL authors should always protect their additions to the Web by including trademark (TM) or Copyright (C) symbols in their HTML documents.
URL authors should include an email address at the bottom (or in the address area) of all HTML documents. Because of the nature of html links, a user can automatically link to your html document and have questions about it, but will not know who to contact if the email address is not available.
Including the actual URL in the document source preferably after the [Address tag], will allow users that print out the information to know where to access the information in the future, i.e. URL://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/web.html
URL's authors should always include a date of last revision - so users linking to the site can know how up to date the information has been maintained.
Infringement of copyright laws, obscene, harrassing or threatening materials on Web sites can be in violation of local, state, national or international laws and can be subject to litigation by the appropriate law enforcement agency. Authors of HTML documents will ultimately be responsible for what they allow users worldwide to access.

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