Internetiquette for e-mail ******************************** 1. Shouting: Don't Shout. Messages in all uppercase are hard to read and are also very irritating. This is commonly called shouting. A suitable response is to politely ask people who do this to stop. If they don't, be generous. Perhaps they're waiting for the computer service engineer to fix their shift key. If shouters exhibit long-term recidivist tendencies, just don't read anything from them until they complain; they you can politely tell them why. If the shouter is your boss, you're on your own. 2. Correct Address: Be certain that your message is addressed to the person you want to send it to. A young lady in a major corporation was having what was once called a dalliance with a young gentleman employed by the same organization. Apparently things weren't going so well, and in a fit of pique, she decided to write him - on the company's e-mail system. She wrote at length about his failings as a companion, both socially and, in great detail, sexually. She then fumbled on the keyboard and promptly sent the letter to everyone in her division. 3. Quotability: Remember (especially when the subject matter is questionable) that anything you send can be easily and almost instantly forwarded to others. 4. Who Sent It?: Be sure that a message asking you to do something potentially indiscreet is from the person it claims to be from. At one company, a bogus electronic e-mail (apparently from the CEO) went to all the employees in a branch office. The message asked for their frank opinions (which would be kept confidential) of their superiors, because rumors of problems had been heard. Several people fell for it, because the recipient was, indeed, the CEO, their faux-pas was complete. 5. Your Tone: Watch the tone of what you write. What may sound funny or reasonable in speech can sound aggressive, abrupt, or just plain rude in e-mail. This is partly explained by the fact that e-mail is so easy to produce. Most people don't spend a great deal of time considering what they're going to put in an e-message and rarely format it as they would a handwritten letter. You should save your responses if they are of any significant length or importance and review them before you commit them to the Internet. If you think you might be misinterpreted, you can, if the circumstances permit, use e-mail shorthand and emoticons (see the following section). 6. Other People's Tone: You should also carefully read what others write. Their apparent tone may not be what they actually meant. I (Mark Gibbs) was once trying to reach a product manager in a company I was working with and finally resorted to e-mail, which his secretary always handled for him. She replied "I resent your message" and, like a gold-plated, five-star idiot, I phoned and asked her, "What the hell do you resent?" I then spent the next ten minutes jabbering my apologies (I had mistaken re-sent for resent.) 7. Suitable Content: Don't be coarse, vulgar, or suggestive. Not only are these kinds of expressions rarely acceptable to others, but you're putting them on electronic paper; they may well hang around to haunt you. Many a management career has foundered on the rocks of things that should not have been written down. E-mail can make the rocks come up to meet you faster. 8. Discretion: Don't send any message that you wouldn't send in a letter. If you are going to libel, gossip, or be otherwise indiscreet, keep to the spoken word. Better yet, avoid the impulse; it is vulgar. 9. Flaming: Flaming is when you write a message, obviously in anger, and "say what you think" The usual result is that the author looks foolish and immature. Don't flame. 10. Chain Letters: Don't get involved with them. At all. At the least they are a waste of resources (the bandwidth to send them and the space they take up in a mailbox) and at worst illegal. E-Mail Shorthand **************************************** E-mail shorthand usually refers to acronyms that are strategically placed in messages. They are subject to context, and so are used both politely and impolitely, for humor, anger and so on: LOL - Laugh Out Loud OTF - On The Floor (laughing) ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing IMHO - In My Humble Opinion BTW - By The Way YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary - mileage referring to connection speeds. E-Mail Emoticons ***************************************** Emoticons are sequences of characters that denote faces and expressions. There are literally hundreds, although only a few are in common use. They are always read better if they are in a monospaced font (like Courier, the normal typewriter font, where each character is the same width). They are read sideways: :-) Smile - to show pleasure, or that you really don't mean it ;-) Wink - to show that you are winking. A tongue in check joke, or maybe being cute. :-( Displeasure - to show you are sad or displeased. :-> Smug - to show you are being smug.