[p2p-research] Netiquette (was: Re: leaving this list)

[Christian Siefkes]

Hi marc, Marco, all,

marc fawzi wrote:
> Attempt to promote superficial, judgmental, arbitrary rules always get the
> same response from me, Marco: NO.

The rules Marco proposes to adhere to are far from arbitrary; they come from
a set of very thought-out and long established recommendations for online
behavior called Netiquette <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette>. There
even is an RFC for it: http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html, which says,
among other smart things:

* 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.

That's really a courtesy for the reader which allows him/her to see to what
exactly you're replying to and to easily focus on the new things in your
message (rather than all the old stuff you're merely quoting). I know that
editing out takes a little bit of your time when writing a message, but its
time which you save your readers since they don't have to read/skim over all
the things which you could have cut out. It's a courtesy, but I don't think
that courtesy is unimportant.

It may also a question of inclusiveness, since the extremely lengthy mails
on this list (due to the fact that mail length increases linearly with
thread line if each new mail contains all the old mails from the same
thread, and since threads on this list tend to become quite long) take a
long time to download for people with slow Internet access, and since they
can become expensive to download for people to still pay be the minute or by
download volume. If you're on a fast broadband connection, that may sound
irrelevant to you, but I doubt that everyone is in that lucky
situation--esp. since we're talking here in an international context.


Some other useful guidelines from the Netiquette:

* 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.
* 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.
* 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

* Mail should have a subject heading which reflects the content of the
  message. [That means: whenever the topic of a thread changes--as it
  usually does over time--please adjust to subject line to reflect the
  changed topic (as I did in the subject of this line). Again, that's a
  courtesy which takes a few seconds of your precious time, but it's really
  just a few seconds and it's helping your readers.]
* 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. [I don't adhere to the
  rule of thumb, but I still think that shorter is better.]
* 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.
* Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more than
  gratuitous replies to replies.
* When sending a message to more than one mailing list, especially if the
  lists are closely related, apologize for cross-posting.
* If you are caught in an argument, keep the discussion focused on issues
  rather than the personalities involved.

These guidelines are meant to make communcation easier, smoother, and more
agreeable for everyone involved. They are not arbitary, let alone
superficial or judgmental.

Ignore them when you must, but adhere to them when you can.

Best regards
	Christian

-- 
|-------- Dr. Christian Siefkes --------- christian at siefkes.net ---------
|   Homepage: http://www.siefkes.net/   |   Blog: http://www.keimform.de/
|   Better Bayesian Analysis:           |   Peer Production Everywhere:
|   http://bart-project.com/            |   http://peerconomy.org/wiki/
|------------------------------------------ OpenPGP Key ID: 0x346452D8 --
There is a direct correlation between quality of coffee and quality of code.
        -- Dr. Heinz M. Kabutz, The Java Specialists' Newsletter

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