Battlefields Region
Scout Chat
Available to all Scouting & Guiding members around the world to use at
any time. The schedule allows others to meet at a common time and get to know one another.
. |
WebChats for JOTI
If you do not have access to an irc client (e.g. if you are not
allowed to install software on your PC at university), you can take part in JOTI right
here by following one of the links to the webchat below.
However, we
strongly recomend that if you do have the possibility to install a proper irc client you
do so. IRC-clients are more reliable and have many more features than our simple webchat.
You can download different clients from here.
Please
read also the following documents before you are going to start:
- A list of
irc commands
(please note: some of these commands will not work in the webchat)
- What are
the rules of this event?
These
links will take you directly to the chat
|
Netiquette Guidelines for the participation to the World Scout Jamboree On The Internet
This document
provides a minimum set of guidelines for Internetwork Etiquette (Netiquette) to be
followed by all event participants of the World Scout Jamboree On The Internet (JOTI). It
also functions as a minimum set of guidelines for individuals, both Internet users such as
Scouts and Scouters, and Systems support administrators. This document is the product of
the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) Working Group of the IETF, as modified by Scouts
and Scouters via list servers such as SCOUTS-L and SCOUTS-E, as well as other public
forums.
Abstract
- 1.0 Introduction
- 2.0 One-to-One Communication
2.1.1 For Mail
2.1.2 For Talk
2.2 Administrator Issues
- 3.0 One-to-Many Communication
3.1.1 General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews
3.1.2 Mailing List Guidelines
3.1.3 NetNews Guidelines
3.2 Administrator Guidelines
3.2.1 General Issues
3.2.2 Mailing Lists
3.2.3 NetNews
3.3 Moderator Guidelines<
3.3.1 General Guidelines
- 4.0 Information Services
4.1 User Guidelines
4.1.1 General Guidelines
4.1.2 Real Time Interactive Services Guidelines
4.2 Administrator Guidelines
4.2.1 General Guidelines
1.0
Introduction
In the past,
the population of people using the Internet had "grown up" with the Internet,
were technically minded, and understood the nature of the transport and the protocols.
Today, the community of Internet users includes people who are new to the environment.
These "Newbies" are unfamiliar with the culture and don't need to know about
transport and protocols. In order to bring these new users into the Internet culture
quickly, this Guide offers a minimum set of behaviors which organizations and individuals
may take and adapt for their own use. Individuals should be aware that no matter who
supplies their Internet access, be it an Internet Service Provider through a private
account, or a student account at a University, or an account through a corporation, that
those organizations have regulations about ownership of mail and files, about what is
proper to post or send, and how to present yourself. Be sure to check with the local
authority for specific guidelines.
We've
organized this material into three sections: One-to-one communication, which includes mail
and talk; One-to-many communications, which includes mailing lists and NetNews; and
Information Services, which includes ftp, WWW, Wais, Gopher, MUDs and MOOs.Finally, we
have a Selected Bibliography, which may be used for reference.
2.0
One-to-One Communication (electronic mail, talk)
We define
one-to-one communications as those in which a person is communicating with another person
as if face-to-face: a dialog. In general, rules of common courtesy for interaction with
people should be in force for any situation and on the Internet it's doubly important
where, for example, body language and tone of voice must be inferred.
2.1 User
Guidelines
2.1.1 For
mail:
- Unless you
have your own Internet access through an Internet provider, be sure to check with your
employer about ownership of electronic mail. Laws about the ownership of electronic mail
vary from place to place.
- Unless you
are using an encryption device (hardware or software), you should assume that mail on the
Internet is not secure. Never put in a mail message anything you would not put on a
postcard.
- Respect the
copyright on material that you reproduce. Almost every country has copyright laws.
- If you are
forwarding or re-posting a message you've received, do not change the wording. If the
message was a personal message to you and you are re-posting to a group, you should ask
permission first. You may shorten the message and quote only relevant parts, but be sure
you give proper attribution.
- Never send
chain letters via electronic mail. Chain letters are forbidden on the Internet. Your
network privileges will be revoked. Notify your local system administrator if your ever
receive one.
- A good rule
of thumb: Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive. You should not
send heated messages (we call these "flames") even if you are provoked. On the
other hand, you shouldn't be surprised if you get flamed and it's prudent not to respond
to flames.
- In general,
it's a good idea to at least check all your mail subjects before responding to a message.
Sometimes a person who asks you for help (or clarification) will send another message
which effectively says "Never Mind". Also make sure that any message you respond
to was directed to you. You might be cc:ed rather than the primary recipient.
- Make things
easy for the recipient. Many mailers strip header information which includes your return
address. In order to ensure that people know who you are, be sure to include a line or two
at the end of your message with contact information. You can create this file ahead of
time and add it to the end of your messages. (Some mailers do this automatically.) In
Internet parlance, this is known as a ".sig" or "signature" file. Your
.sig file takes the place of your business card. (And you can have more than one to apply
in different circumstances.)
- Be careful
when addressing mail. There are addresses which may go to a group but the address looks
like it is just one person. Know to whom you are sending.
- Watch cc's
when replying. Don't continue to include people if the messages have become a 2-way
conversation.
- In general,
most people who use the Internet don't have time to answer general questions about the
Internet and its workings. Don't send unsolicited mail asking for information to people
whose names you might have seen in RFCs or on mailing lists.
- Remember
that people with whom you communicate are located across the globe. If you send a message
to which you want an immediate response, the person receiving it might be at home asleep
when it arrives. Give them a chance to wake up, come to work, and login before assuming
the mail didn't arrive or that they don't care.
- Verify all
addresses before initiating long or personal discourse. It's also a good practice to
include the word "Long" in the subject header so the recipient knows the message
will take time to read and respond to. Over 100 lines is considered "long".
- Know whom
to contact for help. Usually you will have resources close at hand. Check locally for
people who can help you with software and system problems. Also, know whom to go to if you
receive anything questionable or illegal. Most sites also have "Postmaster"
aliased to a knowledgeable user, so you can send mail to this address to get help with
mail.
- Remember
that the recipient is a human being whose culture, language, and humor have different
points of reference from your own. Remember that date formats, measurements, and idioms
may not travel well.Be especially careful with sarcasm.
- Use mixed
case. UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.
- Use symbols
for emphasis. That *is* what I meant. Use underscores for underlining. _War and Peace_ is
my favorite book.
- Use smileys
to indicate tone of voice, but use them sparingly. :-) is an example of a smiley (Look
sideways). Don't assume that the inclusion of a smiley will make the recipient happy with
what you say or wipe out an otherwise insulting comment.
- Wait
overnight to send emotional responses to messages. If you have really strong feelings
about a subject, indicate it via FLAME ON/OFF enclosures. For example: FLAME ON: This type
of argument is not worth the bandwidth it takes to send it. It's illogical and poorly
reasoned. The rest of the world agrees with me. FLAME OFF
- Do not
include control characters or non-ASCII attachments in messages unless they are MIME
attachments or unless your mailer encodes these. If you send encoded messages make sure
the recipient can decode them.
- Be brief
without being overly terse. When replying to a message, include enough original material
to be understood but no more. It is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by
including all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material.
- Limit line
length to fewer than 65 characters and end a line with a carriage return.
- Mail should
have a subject heading which reflects the content of the message.
- If you
include a signature keep it short. Rule of thumb is no longer than 4 lines. Remember that
many people pay for connectivity by the minute, and the longer your message is, the more
they pay.
- Just as
mail (today) may not be private, mail (and news) are (today) subject to forgery and
spoofing of various degrees of detectability. Apply common sense "reality
checks" before assuming a message is valid.
- If you
think the importance of a message justifies it, immediately reply briefly to an e-mail
message to let the sender know you got it, even if you will send a longer reply later.
- "Reasonable"
expectations for conduct via e-mail depend on your relationship to a person and the
context of the communication. Norms learned in a particular e-mail environment may not
apply in general to your e-mail communication with people across the Internet. Be careful
with slang or local acronyms.
- The cost of
delivering an e-mail message is, on the average, paid about equally by the sender and the
recipient (or their organizations). This is unlike other media such as physical mail,
telephone, TV, or radio. Sending someone mail may also cost them in other specific ways
like network bandwidth, disk space or CPU usage. This is a fundamental economic reason why
unsolicited e-mail advertising is unwelcome (and is forbidden in many contexts).
- Know how
large a message you are sending. Including large files such as Postscript files or
programs may make your message so large that it cannot be delivered or at least consumes
excessive resources. A good rule of thumb would be not to send a file larger than 50
Kilobytes. Consider file transfer as an alternative, or cutting the file into smaller
chunks and sending each as a separate message.
- Don't send
large amounts of unsolicited information to people.
- If your
mail system allows you to forward mail, beware the dreaded forwarding loop. Be sure you
haven't set up forwarding on several hosts so that a message sent to you gets into an
endless loop from one computer to the next to the next.
2.1.2 For
talk:
- Talk is a
set of protocols which allow two people to have an interactive dialogue via computer.
- Use mixed
case and proper punctuation, as though you were typing a letter or sending mail.
- Don't run
off the end of a line and simply let the terminal wrap; use a Carriage Return (CR) at the
end of the line. Also, don't assume your screen size is the same as everyone else's. A
good rule of thumb is to write out no more than 70 characters, and no more than 12 lines
(since you're using a split screen).
- Leave some
margin; don't write to the edge of the screen.
- Use two CRs
to indicate that you are done and the other person may start typing. (blank line).
- Always say
goodbye, or some other farewell, and wait to see a farewell from the other person before
killing the session. This is especially important when you are communicating with someone
a long way away. Remember that your communication relies on both bandwidth (the size of
the pipe) and latency (the speed of light).
- Remember
that talk is an interruption to the other person. Only use as appropriate. And never talk
to strangers.
- The reasons
for not getting a reply are many. Don't assume that everything is working correctly. Not
all versions of talk are compatible.
- If left on
its own, talk re-rings the recipient. Let it ring one or two times, then kill it.
- If a person
doesn't respond you might try another tty. Use finger to determine which are open. If the
person still doesn't respond, do not continue to send.
- Talk shows
your typing ability. If you type slowly and make mistakes when typing it is often not
worth the time of trying to correct, as the other person can usually see what you meant.
- Be careful
if you have more than one talk session going!
2.2
Administrator Issues
- Be sure you
have established written guidelines for dealing with situations especially illegal,
improper, or forged traffic.
- Handle
requests in a timely fashion by the next business day.
- Respond
promptly to people who have concerns about receiving improper or illegal messages.Requests
concerning chain letters should be handled immediately.
- Explain any
system rules, such as disk quotas, to your users. Make sure they understand implications
of requesting files by mail such as: Filling up disks; running up phone bills, delaying
mail, etc.
- Make sure
you have "Postmaster" aliased. Make sure you have "Root" aliased. Make
sure someone reads that mail.
- Investigate
complaints about your users with an open mind. Remember that addresses may be forged and
spoofed.
3.0
One-to-Many Communication (Mailing Lists, NetNews)
Any time you
engage in One-to-Many communications, all the rules for mail should also apply. After all,
communicating with many people via one mail message or post is quite analogous to
communicating with one person with the exception of possibly offending a great many more
people than in one-to-one communication. Therefore, it's quite important to know as much
as you can about the audience of your message.
3.1 User
Guidelines
3.1.1
General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews
- Read both
mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months before you post anything. This helps
you to get an understanding of the culture of the group.
- Do not
blame the system administrator for the behavior of the system users.
- Consider
that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your present or your next
boss. Take care in what you write. Remember too, that mailing lists and Newsgroups are
frequently archived, and that your words may be stored for a very long time in a place to
which many people have access.
- Assume that
individuals speak for themselves, and what they say does not represent their organization
(unless stated explicitly).
- Remember
that both mail and news take system resources. Pay attention to any specific rules
covering their uses your organization may have.
- Messages
and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't wander off-topic, don't ramble and
don't send mail or post messages solely to point out other people's errors in typing or
spelling. These, more than any other behavior, mark you as an immature beginner.
- Subject
lines should follow the conventions of the group.
- Forgeries
and spoofing are not approved behavior.
- Advertising
is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and abhorred on others! This is another example
of knowing your audience before you post. Unsolicited advertising which is completely
off-topic will most certainly guarantee that you get a lot of hate mail.
- If you are
sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you summarize the original at the top of
the message, or include just enough text of the original to give a context. This will make
sure readers understand when they start to read your response. Since NetNews, especially,
is proliferated by distributing the postings from one host to another, it is possible to
see a response to a message before seeing the original. Giving context helps everyone. But
do not include the entire original!
- Again, be
sure to have a signature which you attach to your message. This will guarantee that any
peculiarities of mailers or newsreaders which strip header information will not delete the
only reference in the message of how people may reach you.
- Be careful
when you reply to messages or postings. Frequently replies are sent back to the address
which originated the post - which in many cases is the address of a list or group! You may
accidentally send a personal response to a great many people, embarrassing all involved.
It's best to type in the address instead of relying on "reply."
- Delivery
receipts, non-delivery notices, and vacation programs are neither totally standardized nor
totally reliable across the range of systems connected to Internet mail. They are invasive
when sent to mailing lists, and some people consider delivery receipts an invasion of
privacy. In short, do not use them.
- If you find
a personal message has gone to a list or group, send an apology to the person and to the
group.
- If you
should find yourself in a disagreement with one person, make your responses to each other
via mail rather than continue to send messages to the list or the group. If you are
debating a point on which the group might have some interest, you may summarize for them
later.
- Don't get
involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond to incendiary material.
- Avoid
sending messages or posting articles which are no more than gratuitous replies to replies.
- Be careful
with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will display differently on different systems,
and with different mailers on the same system.
- There are
Newsgroups and Mailing Lists which discuss topics of wide varieties of interests. These
represent a diversity of lifestyles, religions, and cultures. Posting articles or sending
messages to a group whose point of view is offensive to you simply to tell them they are
offensive is not acceptable. Sexually and racially harassing messages may also have legal
implications. There is software available to filter items you might find objectionable.
3.1.2
Mailing List Guidelines
- There are
several ways to find information about what mailing lists exist on the Internet and how to
join them. Make sure you understand your organization's policy about joining these lists
and posting to them. In general it is always better to check local resources first before
trying to find information via the Internet. Nevertheless, there are a set of files posted
periodically to news.answers which list the Internet mailing lists and how to subscribe to
them. This is an invaluable resource for finding lists on any topic. See also references
[9,13,15] in the Selected Bibliography.
- Send
subscribe and unsubscribe messages to the appropriate address. Although some mailing list
software is smart enough to catch these, not all can ferret these out. It is your
responsibility to learn how the lists work, and to send the correct mail to the correct
place. Although many many mailing lists adhere to the convention of having a
"-request" alias for sending subscribe and unsubscribe messages, not all do. Be
sure you know the conventions used by the lists to which you subscribe.
- Save the
subscription messages for any lists you join. These usually tell you how to unsubscribe as
well.
- In general,
it's not possible to retrieve messages once you have sent them. Even your system
administrator will not be able to get a message back once you have sent it. This means you
must make sure you really want the message to go as you have written it.
- The
auto-reply feature of many mailers is useful for in-house communication, but quite
annoying when sent to entire mailing lists. Examine "Reply-To" addresses when
replying to messages from lists. Most auto-replys will go to all members of the list.
- Don't send
large files to mailing lists when Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or pointers to ftp-able
versions will do. If you want to send it as multiple files, be sure to follow the culture
of the group. If you don't know what that is, ask.
- Consider
unsubscribing or setting a "nomail" option (when it's available) when you cannot
check your mail for an extended period.
- When
sending a message to more than one mailing list, especially if the lists are closely
related, apologize for cross-posting.
- If you ask
a question, be sure to post a summary. When doing so, truly summarize rather than send a
cumulation of the messages you receive.
- Some
mailing lists are private. Do not send mail to these lists uninvited. Do not report mail
from these lists to a wider audience.
- If you are
caught in an argument, keep the discussion focused on issues rather than the personalities
involved.
3.1.3
NetNews Guidelines
- NetNews is
a globally distributed system which allows people to communicate on topics of specific
interest. It is divided into hierarchies, with the major divisions being:
- sci =
science related discussions
- comp =
computer related discussions
- news = for
discussions which center around NetNews itself
- rec =
recreational activities
- soc =
social issues
- talk =
long-winded never-ending discussions
- biz =
business related postings
- alt = the
alternate hierarchy
- Alt is so
named because creating an alt group does not go through the same process as creating a
group in the other parts of the hierarchy. There are also regional hierarchies,
hierarchies which are widely distributed such as Bionet, and your place of business may
have its own groups as well. Recently, a "humanities" hierarchy was added, and
as time goes on its likely more will be added. For longer discussions on News see
references [2,8,22,23] in the Selected Bibliography.
- In NetNews
parlance, "Posting" refers to posting a new article to a group, or responding to
a post someone else has posted. "Cross-Posting" refers to posting a message to
more than one group. If you introduce Cross-Posting to a group, or if you direct
"Followup-To:" in the header of your posting, warn readers! Readers will usually
assume that the message was posted to a specific group and that followups will go to that
group. Headers change this behavior.
- Read all of
a discussion in progress (we call this a thread) before posting replies. Avoid posting
"Me Too" messages, where content is limited to agreement with previous posts.
Content of a follow-up post should exceed quoted content.
- Send mail
when an answer to a question is for one person only. Remember that News has global
distribution and the whole world probably is NOT interested in a personal response.
However, don't hesitate to post when something will be of general interest to the
Newsgroup participants.
- Check the
"Distribution" section of the header, but don't depend on it. Due to the complex
method by which News is delivered, Distribution headers are unreliable. But, if you are
posting something which will be of interest to a limited number or readers, use a
distribution line that attempts to limit the distribution of your article to those people.
For example, set the Distribution to be "nj" if you are posting an article that
will be of interest only to New Jersey readers.
- If you feel
an article will be of interest to more than one Newsgroup, be sure to CROSSPOST the
article rather than individually post it to those groups. In general, probably only
five-to-six groups will have similar enough interests to warrant this.
- Consider
using Reference sources (Computer Manuals, Newspapers, help files) before posting a
question. Asking a Newsgroup where answers are readily available elsewhere generates
grumpy "RTFM" (read the fine manual although a more vulgar meaning of the word
beginning with "f" is usually implied) messages.
- Although
there are Newsgroups which welcome advertising, in general it is considered nothing less
than criminal to advertise off-topic products. Sending an advertisement to each and every
group will pretty much guarantee your loss of connectivity.
- If you
discover an error in your post, cancel it as soon as possible.
- DO NOT
attempt to cancel any articles but your own. Contact your administrator if you don't know
how to cancel your post, or if some other post, such as a chain letter, needs canceling.
- If you've
posted something and don't see it immediately, don't assume it's failed and re-post it.
- Some groups
permit (and some welcome) posts which in other circumstances would be considered to be in
questionable taste. Still, there is no guarantee that all people reading the group will
appreciate the material as much as you do. Use the Rotate utility (which rotates all the
characters in your post by 13 positions in the alphabet) to avoid giving offense.The Rot13
utility for Unix is an example.
- In groups
which discuss movies or books it is considered essential to mark posts which disclose
significant content as "Spoilers". Put this word in your Subject: line. You may
add blank lines to the beginning of your post to keep content out of sight, or you may
Rotate it.
- Forging of
news articles is generally censured. You can protect yourself from forgeries by using
software which generates a manipulation detection "fingerprint", such as PGP (in
the US).
- Postings
via anonymous servers are accepted in some Newsgroups and disliked in others. Material
which is inappropriate when posted under one's own name is still inappropriate when posted
anonymously.
- Expect a
slight delay in seeing your post when posting to a moderated group. The moderator may
change your subject line to have your post conform to a particular thread.
- Don't get
involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond to incendiary material.
3.2
Administrator Guidelines
3.2.1
General Issues
- Clarify any
policies your site has regarding its subscription to NetNews groups and about subscribing
to mailing lists.
- Clarify any
policies your site has about posting to NetNews groups or to mailing lists, including use
of disclaimers in .sigs.
- Clarify and
publicize archive policy. (How long are articles kept?)
- Investigate
accusations about your users promptly and with an open mind.
- Be sure to
monitor the health of your system.
- Consider
how long to archive system logs, and publicize your policy on logging.
3.2.2
Mailing Lists
- Keep
mailing lists up to date to avoid the "bouncing mail" problem.
- Help list
owners when problems arise.
- Inform list
owners of any maintenance windows or planned downtime.
- Be sure to
have "-request" aliases for list subscription and administration.
- Make sure
all mail gateways operate smoothly.
3.2.3
NetNews
- Publicize
the nature of the feed you receive. If you do not get a full feed, people may want to know
why not.
- Be aware
that the multiplicity of News Reader clients may cause the News Server being blamed for
problems in the clients.
- Honor
requests from users immediately if they request cancellation of their own posts or invalid
posts, such as chain letters.
- Have
"Usenet", "Netnews" and "News" aliased and make sure someone
reads the mail.
3.3
Moderator Guidelines
3.3.1
General Guidelines
- Make sure
your Frequestly Asked Questions (FAQ) is posted at regular intervals. Include your
guidelines for articles/messages. If you are not the FAQ maintainer, make sure they do so.
- Make sure
you maintain a good welcome message, which contains subscribe and unsubscribe information.
- Newsgroups
should have their charter/guidelines posted regularly.
- Investigate
accusations about your users promptly and with an open mind.
4.0
Information Services (Gopher, Wais, WWW, ftp, telnet)
In recent
Internet history, the 'Net has exploded with new and varied Information services. Gopher,
Wais, World Wide Web (WWW), Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs) Multi-User Dimensions which are
Object Oriented (MOOs) are a few of these new areas. Although the ability to find
information is exploding, "Caveat Emptor" remains constant. For more information
on these services, check references [14,28] in the Selected Bibliography.
4.1 User
Guidelines
4.1.1.
General guidelines
- Remember
that all these services belong to someone else. The people who pay the bills get to make
the rules governing usage. Information may be free or it may not be! Be sure you check.
- If you have
problems with any form of information service, start problem solving by checking locally:
Check file configurations, software setup, network connections, etc. Do this before
assuming the problem is at the provider's end and/or is the provider's fault.
- Although
there are naming conventions for file-types used, don't depend on these file naming
conventions to be enforced. For example, a ".doc" file is not always a Word
file.
- Information
services also use conventions, such as www.xyz.com. While it is useful to know these
conventions, again, don't necessarily rely on them.
- Know how
file names work on your own system.
- Be aware of
conventions used for providing information during sessions. FTP sites usually have files
named README in a top level directory which have information about the files available.
But, don't assume that these files are necessarily up-to-date and/or accurate.
- Do NOT
assume that ANY information you find is up-to-date and/or accurate. Remember that new
technologies allow just about anyone to be a publisher, but not all people have discovered
the responsibilities which accompany publishing.
- Remember
that unless you are sure that security and authentication technology is in use, that any
information you submit to a system is being transmitted over the Internet "in the
clear", with no protection from "sniffers" or forgers.
- Since the
Internet spans the globe, remember that Information Services might reflect culture and
life-style markedly different from your own community. Materials you find offensive may
originate in a geography which finds them acceptable. Keep an open mind.
- When
wanting information from a popular server, be sure to use a mirror server that's close if
a list is provided.
- Do not use
someone else's FTP site to deposit materials you wish other people to pick up. This is
called "dumping" and is not generally acceptable behavior.
- When you
have trouble with a site and ask for help, be sure to provide as much information as
possible in order to help debug the problem.
- When
bringing up your own information service, such as a homepage, be sure to check with your
local system administrator to find what the local guidelines are in affect.
- Consider
spreading out the system load on popular sites by avoiding "rush hour" and
logging in during off-peak times.
4.1.2 Real
Time Interactive Services Guidelines (MUDs MOOs IRC)
- As in other
environments, it is wise to "listen" first to get to know the culture of the
group.
- It's not
necessary to greet everyone on a channel or room personally. Usually one "Hello"
or the equivalent is enough. Using the automation features of your client to greet people
is not acceptable behavior.
- Warn the
participants if you intend to ship large quantities of information. If all consent to
receiving it, you may send, but sending unwanted information without a warning is
considered bad form just as it is in mail.
- Don't
assume that people who you don't know will want to talk to you. If you feel compelled to
send private messages to people you don't know, then be willing to accept gracefully the
fact that they might be busy or simply not want to chat with you.
- Respect the
guidelines of the group. Look for introductory materials for the group. These may be on a
related ftp site.
- Don't
badger other users for personal information such as sex, age, or location. After you have
built an acquaintance with another user, these questions may be more appropriate, but many
people hesitate to give this information to people with whom they are not familiar.
- If a user
is using a nickname alias or pseudonym, respect that user's desire for anonymity. Even if
you and that person are close friends, it is more courteous to use his nickname. Do not
use that person's real name online without permission.
4.2
Administrator Guidelines
4.2.1
General Guidelines
- Make clear
what's available for copying and what is not.
- Describe
what's available on your site, and your organization. Be sure any general policies are
clear.
- Keep
information, especially READMEs, up-to-date. Provide READMEs in plain ascii text.
- Present a
list of mirrors of your site if you know them. Make sure you include a statement of
copyright applicable to your mirrors. List their update schedule if possible.
- Make sure
that popular (and massive) information has the bandwidth to support it.
- Use
conventions for file extensions
- .txt for
ascii text
- .html or
.htm for HTML
- .ps for
Postscript
- .pdf for
Portable Document Format
- .sgml or
.sgm for SGML
- .exe for
windows executables, etc.
- For files
being transferred, try to make filenames unique in the first eight characters.
- When
providing information, make sure your site has something unique to offer. Avoid bringing
up an information service which simply points to other services on the Internet.
- Don't point
to other sites without asking first.
- Remember
that setting up an information service is more than just design and implementation. It's
also maintenance.
- Make sure
your posted materials are appropriate for the supporting organization.
- Test
applications with a variety of tools. Don't assume everything works if you've tested with
only one client. Also, assume the low end of technology for clients and don't create
applications which can only be used by Graphical User Interfaces.
- Have a
consistent view of your information. Make sure the look and feel stays the same throughout
your applications.
- Be
sensitive to the longevity of your information. Be sure to date time-sensitive materials,
and be vigilant about keeping this information well maintained.
- Export
restrictions vary from country to country. Be sure you understand the implications of
export restrictions when you post.
- Tell users
what you plan to do with any information you collect, such as WWW feedback. You need to
warn people if you plan to publish any of their statements, even passively by just making
it available to other users.
- Make sure
your policy on user information services, such as homepages, is well known.
Source &
suggestions: d_deyoung@moc.ual.com
© 1997-2005 WOSM Netiquette Team - All Rights Reserved