Netiquette, E-Mail Etiquette

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The social spaces on the Web have introduced a whole new set of conduct that is considered, well...considerate.

Good manners help gatherings go smoother, whether they are in a club or in a chat room.

Net etiquette, blur it together to form netiquette, is not as formal as Miss Manners would like it. There are no formal rules for the high speed social networking that exists online, but write a message all in caps or barge into a forum to sell a site and see how fast the politeness police come at you.

The simple rules for getting along online are mostly obvious.

Don't go off topic or get nasty or hurl personal insults in a public space. If you want to have a heated argument, take it outside to a private chat. No one wants to sit through two opinionated people calling each other stupid - even if the name calling is creative.
Writing in CAPS is shouting in email, text or chatting. Keep your cases mixed - don't use all lower or all upper case. It's rude to shout and hard to read text that doesn't have any caps or punctuation.
Try to spell words correctly. Fast typing leads to mistakes and some very intelligent people carry an inability to spell as a side effect of learning disorders, so please don't assume a spelling mistake makes the author ignorant... but there are spell checkers that you can use on email and forum texts before you hit send that will save others from having to decipher what you're trying to say.
Without the facial expressions and other nonverbal cues that we use to soften our words, e-communication is easy to take the wrong way. If you're sending a "humorous" mail and it gets taken seriously and offends people... that's what happens when the words have to stand alone.
Don't send knee-jerk responses. Sure, sometimes someone says something that gets you annoyed. Take a few minutes and remember that what you read may not be what the writer meant. You may want to point out that the message was not appropriate, but shooting off a belligerent response just makes the situation worse. Take a couple of minutes to cool down and decide if you really want to spend your time e-fighting. It's usually easier and just as effective to just hit the delete key on the offending message and the cancel key on your response.
Don't send junk. Don't spread rumors. Don't ever, ever, ever send chain e-mail. Believe it or not, most people who have been online for a while already have the Neiman Marcus Cookie recipe. They know that the little boy, girl or animal that needs you to send the email to everyone you know is all grown up - if they ever existed. Warning others of a nasty virus that will hit their computer is kind - but check first to prevent spreading a hoax. Snopes is a good place to check for general hoaxes and McAfee has a section devoted to virus hoaxes,

Check out politically-correct guide to being an upstanding Netizen, and not overstaying your welcome on chats and forums, (and how to handle those impudent Flamers and Trolls) with more on what to say in a business e-mail and formatting your resume ...

...plus other classic tips for applying the Golden Rule while traveling through the Internet...

Netiquette Home Page - The winner and still champion of Internet Netiquette advice with a comprehensive guide to Business Netiquette, The Art of Flaming, Egregious Violations of Netiquette, and Love & Sex in Cyberspace, including an online quiz and free newsletter.

On Netiquette - Another great resource with detailed tips on proper participation on e-mail lists including tips on formatting, subject headers, quoting, and the bad news about perpetuating hoaxes and chain mail.

Networking on the Net - The guide to professional e-business etiquette and ethics with advice on client correspondence, networking on business messageboards, proprietary rights, and otherwise displaying a professional attitude doing business electronically.

How not to look like an idiot on Usenet - The 16 steps of non-idiot behavior with succinct advice on post preparation, what not to post, and our favorite, #12. Be brief...