Netiquette

Netiquette or "Net Etiquette" is simply the protocol or the proper way to behave while on line. Netiquette was generated from the online community as an essential component to create order in the decentralized Internet world. So, when you go online, you must realize there is a certain way to act and a certain way you are expected to behave. If you don't follow these guidelines, you are almost assured of being attacked, insulted and FLAMED by others you'll encounter online. Here are some of the basic rules:

• Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
• Be Polite
• Remember you are dealing with real people
• DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS. Doing this indicates to people that you're shouting and it will most definitely annoy others.
• Maintain ethics. Just because they can't see you doesn't mean it's an all out rudefest...and don't do anything illegal or anything that you would be ashamed to put your name on.
• Think before you Type. Always remember, when you communicate online, your words are written and are forever immortalized in type. In fact there are computers whose only job is to save everything you ever write in a public forum, especially the newsgroups. Look at http://www.dejanews.com and search for a particular author and you'll see what I mean.
• Lurk and Learn. This simply means when you enter into a Newsgroup or Chat Session, just hang back for awhile before you enter into the conversation.
• Read The FAQS first!!! When checking out a specific Newsgroup, never jump in without reading the list of Frequently Asked Questions first. If you don't and ask a question already listed in the FAQ'S, you will get FLAMED.
• Avoid Flaming whenever possible. To "flame" means to communicate a specific criticism or opinion of another without any consideration to being tactful. Flaming is basically an all out, aggressive reprimand of an unacceptable behavior of another.
• Never SPAM. What you say? Spamming is where one uses a large mailing list, USENET forum or another networked community and they send one message to a group of people who never asked for it in the first place! Why not Spam?? Because, in the Net community, it just won't fly!
• Be Nice to Newbies!

Once you get online and feel confident, always remember, you were a Newbie once too...so, have patience, and be nice with new folks online.

That Personal Touch: Emoticons and Acronyms! Hey ;-)

BTW,FWIW,IME,WYSIWYG.......

Translation....

"By the way, for what it's worth, in my experience, what you see is what you get!!"

These capitalized abbreviations were originally developed to shorten the amount of time spent on line, to get a specific point across as well as present one's own personal flare. It's not necessary to utilize acronyms, however, if it suits your style, go for it! Here are a few more abbreviations for your expressive self!

ADN

Any Day Now

AFK

Away From Keyboard

AWGTHTGTTA?

Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again?

B4N

Bye for Now

BBS

Bulletin Board Service

BIF

Basis In Fact

BL

Belly Laughing

BRB

Be Right Back

BTW

By The Way

CU

See you

CUL

See you Later

DTRT

Do The Right Thing

FAQ

Frequently Asked Question

FISH

First In, Still Here

FYI

For Your Information

GAL

Get A Life

GIWIST

Gee, I Wish I Said That

IAC

In Any Case

IC

I See

ILY

I Love You

IME

In My Experience

IMHO

In My Humble Opinion

IOW

In Other Words

L8R

Later

LOL

Laughing Out Loud

NBIF

No Basis In Fact

OIC

Oh, I See

POV

Point Of View

ROFL

Rolling On Floor Laughing

ROFLAHMS

Rolling On Floor Laughing And Holding My Sides

TTBOMK

To The Best Of My Knowledge

WFM

Works For Me

The way you typically use acronyms is to sprinkle them throughout your text. Now some people aren't very fond of using acronyms and believe the words in their entirety have more impact. I'm sure you will run across some of these abbreviations in your Net explorations and this listing may be helpful for you to decipher the "secret code".

Another way to express your personality via email, chat, newsgroups, etc, is to express your own personal flare with mini-graphics, created by using the digits on your key board. To end a sentence with a smile, you can simply type a colon : for a pair of eyes. A hypen - for a nose and one half of a paranthesis ) for a smile...( this one for a frown. J (my program will not allow a regular smiley!). All you have to do is tilt your head to the left and you'll notice the graphic has more meaning. Here's a list of a few more pictorial expressions which can spice up your communications. Utilizing these emoticons are not essential, but can be fun.

:-)

Smiley with Nose

:)

Smiley without nose

:->

Another Happy Face

:*)

Clowning Around

%-}

Silly

:-r

Bleahh (sticking tongue out)

:-f

Smirk

:-l

Disgusted

:-!

Foot in Mouth

:-J

tongue in cheek comment

:-o

shouting

:-b

Tongue stuck out

:-(

Unhappy Smiley

:-x

kiss

[[name]]

hug!

:-X

not saying a word

-)

ink

(-_-)

Secret Smile

:@

What???

One thing is highly apparent in the Internet community. People are progressive and do appreciate good humor. Smiley's, as these graphics are generically referred to, are another way to add a "face" to your text!

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