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Posted by admin on January 20th, 2009

Netiquette or Net Etiquette is a set of basic guidelines that should be followed online to keep users friendly and happy. Netiquette is mainly linked to forums and blogs but is also important when creating emails, newsletters, mailing lists and to some extent a website.

Netquette varies but the main principals remain the same.

The core rules of Netiquette are:

> Remember the human. When you communicate online, the only thing the user is able to see is the screen, they are unable to see your facial expressions or hear the tone of your voice, so what you write can easily be misinterpreted. Express yourself freely but check for anything that may have a double meaning or cause offense. Remember your visitors are human beings with feelings and you dont want to upset them, you want them to return to your site.

> Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you would follow in real life. Be ethical. If you wouldn’t do something in real life, don’t do it online.

> Know where you are in cyberspace. Things that may be acceptable in one place online may be completely unacceptable elsewhere online. Get to know the feel of a site before you comment.

> Respect other peoples time and bandwidth. Remember, when you send an email, newsletter, etc, people are spending time reading what has been written, make sure it is something they want to read or that it is to the point and easy to understand. Remember that people have other commitments so they may not be able to reply to you immediately, make sure you give them sufficient time to reply.
If you are sending a link to a page or article, remember that sometimes these pages take a while to load so make sure the reader has something good to see or read, it will encourage them to follow your links again.
If you are sending an email, make sure the people you are directing it to actually need to see it. We all receive lots of emails every day and some of them are cc’s that have no relevence to us at all!

> Make yourself look good online. The internet enables you to communicate with people that you may never meet. What you send to people or what you write on your website is the only thing they have to base their opinions on. As Giles always says, ‘perception is reality’. Try to ensure the information you give is accurate and well written with good spelling and grammar. Be pleasant and polite and don’t be confrontational for the sake of it.

> Share expert knowledge. The internet is an amazing resource for finding out about basically anything at all! Internet users come from all walks of life, with a wide variety of jobs and skills, creating a global pool of knowledge. If you know about something, share your knowledge! If you are interested in something, the chances are, so are other people.

> Help keep flame wars under control. ‘Flaming’ is what a person does when they express their strongly held opions without holding back any emotion. These comments generally cause several other people to respond, causing heated arguments which quickly spiral out of control. It is best to remember that people are entitled to their opinions and try to ignore it, or if the comment is extremely offensive report it to the site owner or moderator.

> Respect other peoples privacy. Don’t read other peoples emails.

> Dont abuse your power. On the internet some people have more power than others; some have more knowledge of how things work, others have access to restricted areas. Try not to use your knowledge to make others feel inferior and don’t use access powers to invade peoples privacy.

> Be forgiving of other peoples mistakes. Remember that everyone is human and humans make mistakes. If you see something with incorrect information or spelling mistakes etc, it is best to assume it’s just a human error. If you choose to inform someone of their error, be polite and if possible do it privately eg. by email.

> Write in a user friendly way. One of the basic things to remember is, do not write everything in capital letters! On the internet, writing in capital letters is classed as shouting and can make you appear agressive. This also applies when writing emails.
If you are writing about something technical, try to explain it to the reader in a non technical way. Not everyone visiting your site will understand lots of technical information, so if you are trying to attract Joe Public, make sure he knows what you are selling to him!

The main thing to remember is to be polite and helpful – be the kind of person you would want to meet online!

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Web Design Leicester