Outlook Netiquette

Why are we bringing up Netiquette at all? After all, we've all been on the 'Net for a while now, been sending email for years - why preach to the choir? We all know how to send email, and we're all nice people, right?Right-but that's not enough.

The following is not one person's rules for email. It is not one organization's recommendations.

It is what the Internet as a collective has decided is proper and polite when sending email. Not paying attention to them reflects poorly on the sender and, indirectly, on the sender's institution.

Having said all that, I will bet $1 that there isn't anybody in this room that hasn't been rude by these standards at some time, and I will bet $20 that everybody in the room has been inconvenienced by someone else's Net rudeness.

What follows is gathered from various Internet sources. One site even went as far as to rank the annoyance level of the receiver. While most of us follow most of them most of the time, I guarantee you everyone will find one they either didn't know or routinely ignore. Even if you know and follow them all, please pass them on to your staff.

Basics: Check spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Not taking the time to do so is perceived as laziness or sloppiness. Annoyance level: 0-3. Worst offenses: ALL CAPITALS, excess punctuation!!!!Start your email with a greeting of some sort.Include a brief signature (no more than 4-5 lines recommended) on your email messages to help the recipient understand who sent it.Include your contact information for professional communications.
Addressing: Take the time to check how your message is addressed. When sending to many people, use the BCC: option so that the list of additional addresses does not show up. Two reasons: 1. It is a nuisance to scroll through pages of addresses before one gets to the actual message, 2. You are providing a convenient mailing list for spammers to use. Annoyance level: off the scale!When using the BCC: option, alert the reader that they aren't the only recipient, unless, of course, you have a specific reason for not wanting the reader to know who else is receiving the message.Make sure that you have a relevant "Subject" line. Annoyance level: 3When Replying, include only the relevant lines, and trim all unnecessary text-especially message headers and signatures. Avoid replies like: "I agree." Annoyance level: 6+Make sure you are Replying to the right person(s).Check the To: line to be sure your message is going to the right place. Don't Reply All unless you mean everyone in both the To: and CC: lines.
Bandwidth: Do whatever you can to reduce the size of your message. When your recipient logs onto the Internet and checks his/her mail, s/he should not have to download a 50K message to read 3K of content. This is even more important if your recipient has a slow modem and/or bad phone lines and/or lives in Europe or elsewhere where they pay by the minute for a connection. Even across T1 lines, extra-large emails will affect your patrons' Internet access speed in house.Receiving email in Europe is unlikely in our circumstances, but many of us read email at home on older machines with older clients over slower connections.Simple things you can do:Trim all unnecessary text.Send in plain text.Don't send attachments.
Attachments: Don't send an attachment unless it is necessary. Especially in these days of rampant virus attacks, people do not want to have to click on an attachment if they can avoid it. Not only is opening an attachment a little scary, it also requires extra steps on the reader's part. It also requires extra bandwidth.It is very irritating to have to click open a document for just a few lines of text. There are also technical reasons why attachments (although easier for the sender) are inconsiderate to the reader.There is no guarantee that they will have the required software installed (or correctly configured) to open the document.Many ISPs limit the size and types of attachment they allow their customers to receive.Many listservs do not allow attachments to be sent to the list at all.As a courtesy to your fellow Netizens, whenever possible, cut & paste the text of the document into your email message.
Spam: Do not send chain letters, prayers, petitions, unverified virus warnings etc. In addition to commercial spam (the "Get $$$$$ quick!" sent to hundreds), anything that tells you to "send this to all your friends" is spam. Many ISPs will revoke people's accounts if they catch anyone at it."Chain letters are forbidden on the Internet. Your network privileges will be revoked. Notify your local system administrator if you ever receive one." --Internet Engineering Task Force: RFC 1855.1995While we may not revoke your network priviledges, please understand and pass word to your staff that these types of messages are considered inappropriate use of system resources.The occasional joke sent to a friend whose sense of humor you know is fine. Just remember that not everyone shares your sense of humor, and (esp. in the case of chain letters) may have already received several copies. Annoyance level: 8 (higher if forwarded multiple times).There are no remove lists when it comes to Spammers or companies you have not had previous contact with. Never follow instructions from these folks stating to just hit reply to be removed from further mailings, you have just confirmed you are a LIVE account and your junk mail will increase exponentially as your address is resold over and over again.
Format: Always send messages in plain text, unless you have a reason not to, and are positive all the intended recipients are using email clients that support HTML. Don't format your email by bolding or adding background colors, borders, etc. Many people are still using email clients that don't understand these formats. At best they may receive a lot of HTML obscuring the text. At worst, they can't open the message at all. It also increases the size of the message--requiring more bandwidth to send, more time to download. For people dialing into an ISP, this can translate into dollars. HTML mail also eats up storage space on the recipient's hard drive. For example, Person J has 13,000 text-only messages using 38 MB space. Person K has only 500 HTML messages but uses over 50 MB of space.Many Listservs do not accept HTML mail or attachments at all. See Bandwidth.
Courtesy: Try to think about the message content before you send it out. You will be judged by what and how you write. Terseness, irony, and sarcasm are easily misinterpreted. Use :-) or <grin>to indicate humor if you think the recipient knows what they mean.Don't reply to an email message when angry. Until you know which form of a person's name they prefer, it's safer to stick to what you can see in "public" --ie, "Robert", not "Bob"

</grin>
Account Management: The content and maintenance of your email account is your responsibility. Check your e-mail often. Delete messages often.Reply in a timely manner.When you go on vacation unsubscribe or suspend mail from any lists you receive.
Privacy: Respect the privacy of others. There are two main ways that users regularly violate the privacy of others: 1. Forwarding or quoting someone without their permission, 2. Exposing their email addresses.Email addresses are like phone numbers. Only the owner of the email address or phone number is the one to authorize whom they want to have it and make it public. Many folks prefer to decide themselves who has their email address. By sending email To: a large list of folks, you have made that decision for them.
(In)Security: Don't email anything you wouldn't want left on a photocopier. Any email you send can easily be forwarded to anyone. Email you send will end up somewhere-email servers have a "postmaster" that receives the misguided messages. Email is like a postcard written in pencil-anyone can change anything along the way.
Listservs: Courtesies specifically for listservs and discussion groups. Lurk before you leap.When you join a list, monitor the messages for a few days to get a feel for what common questions are asked, what common topics are discussed, and what topics are deemed off-limits. This is commonly referred to as "lurking"; If Mark Twain had had a modem, he might have said:
"It is better to lurk quietly and be thought a fool than to
post a stupid question to 30,000...and remove all doubt." Take care when subscribing and unsubscribing. For the majority of library related listserves, subscribe and unsubscribe commands should be sent to: Listserv@domain.name or Majordomo@domain.name
Ex: Listserv@listserv.dra.com or Majordomo@badger.state.wi.us
When sending a command to a listserv address leave the subject line blank and delete your signatureKeep track of the lists to which you've subscribed. When you receive confirmation that you are subscribed to a listserv, save the "welcome" message. The "welcome" message will contain important information such as:How to unsubscribeWhat address to use for listserv commandsHow to send mail to everyone subscribed to the listservWhat other commands you may useHow to access and search the listserv archivesLocal netiquette standards the moderator (if any) has set for the list

Ratings from: http://unquietmind.com/email.html

Other sources include:

http://www.onlinenetiquette.com/

http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm

http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc1855.html

http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm

http://www.library.yale.edu/training/netiquette/

http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/writing/help/email/email_addresses.shtml