Chevron 26 :: C26 ::
NETIQUETTE
What is Netiquette, and how does it affect
me?
How often have you heard the term Netiquette, and wondered what it was? Well Netiquette is simply the proper way to conduct yourself's on the net.
Regardless of whether you are in an IRC chat room or a WWW chat, or
methods of using page graphics to sending e mail, Netiquette is there.
Read more to discover the proper way of dealing with WWW
concerns.
TAKING GRAPHICS WITHOUT
PERMISSION
How would you like it if you spent a long time creating a picture for
your pages, then once you had it just right, you place it on your page. A
few weeks later, your surfing along, minding your own business, and all of
a sudden...BLAM!! You see that very same
graphic you made on someone else's page? Not a nice feeling, is it? That
is why you should ALWAYS ask for permission when you want to take a
picture from the web.
GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS
DUE
Once you DO get permission from the owner of the picture, be
sure to include a link on your site back to their page, so people know
where you got that great graphic!! It is only common net courtesy.
NEVER EVER TAKE CREDIT FOR A GRAPHIC
YOU DID
NOT MAKE!
You wouldn't like it someone did that to you, would you? Besides, you
would have a hard time explaining it to the person who made that picture,
once they found out about it!!
DON'T LINK TO SOMEONE'S GRAPHICS
WITHOUT THEIR
EXPRESS PERMISSION
This wastes bandwidth, which really can clog the net down! When someone
logs onto a site, if the pictures and stuff don't actually reside on that
server and are linked elsewhere, it can take forever to download. This
also slows down the person who's site you've stolen this picture or midi
or whatever from. That's not very nice is it? Sometimes these people have
to pay for the hits to their graphics too and this costs them money. So
whenever you want to add something, make sure you put it on your server.
Let's keep the web as fast as we can! Let's not take something that is not
ours.
WHAT ABOUT COPYING SOMEONE'S PAGE,
AND USING IT AS YOUR
OWN?
Don't do this! Again, how would you like it if you worked long and hard
on a page, and someone stole the whole darn thing and took credit for it?
If you create a page that someone else helped you with give them credit
for it.
DON'T SPAM
There are many
different versions of SPAM, and some are outlined here:
Spamming in e-mail
If you are getting an unsolicited (meaning unwanted) e-mail from
someone, who has you in their CC list with a bunch of other people, this
is considered spam. Now, here is an example of a mass e-mailing that is
NOT spam: Some groups leaders all keep in contact by e-mail. To get many
important letters out to everyone with important information from time to
time people will do a mass e-mail. Some groups have mailing lists, but
their recipients should have the option to cancel their subscriptions at
any time. This is not considered spam because we are all expecting it. An
example of using this procedure as spam: Pretend you just did an update of
your page, and wanted everyone to know it. You go into your mail list, and
do a CC to EVERYONE. This can really irritate some people! If you want to
let people know you've done an update, contact them individually! That is
the correct procedure!
Spamming in IRC and WWW Chat
IRC stands for internet relay chat, which is a different aspect of the
web. Spamming here is when you type one thing, and keep hitting the send
button over and over again, not giving the others in the room a chance to
respond. People tend to frown on this, and you will quickly make people
very angry with you if you do this!
Spamming in a Newsgroup
A newsgroup is where many people get together, and do posts on certain
subjects they are all interested in. There are thousands of newsgroups out
there, with many different interests and subjects. If you post something
in a newsgroup that doesn't belong in that particular newsgroup, the
people will get angry, because it slows down their download times. (When
you are accessing your newsgroup, every posting takes time to load) Try to
keep to the subject your uploading to, please. It is usually poor manners
to post graphics to newsgroups unless they require or ask for it, the same
goes for posting a HTML page to a newsgroup, if people posting and reading
newsgroups wanted to see a HTML document they would surf the net not read
the newsgroup to find it.
Now, this may sound like a lot of things to remember, but keep in mind,
being a good netizen means treating others as you yourself want to be
treated. If you follow these few guidelines, you'll have a lot of fun, and
make some friends in the process!!
Remember
THE NET IS HERE FOR YOU TO LEARN, AND HAVE
FUN!!!
Original text copyright by Mary Broussard
I (Isto) changed the format and text in this version here a bit but the major portion of the text was written by Mary Broussarde.