HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA (Charles Hedrick) (04/09/84)
We also recommend the following pair of conventions: - Many people are not fast typists. They have a tendency to be as brief as possible when writing messages. This means that they may have an appearance of being curt or abrupt. You should avoid reacting emotionally, as this appearance is probably not intended. - If you are mad at somebody, call them or talk to them in person. A number of feuds have been fueled by network mail exchange, where a simple person-to-person meeting would have smoothed things out. -------
ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) (04/13/84)
Here are the ethical rules which we are applying for the COM usage
at QZCOM. I am fully aware that they are not comprehensive.
Note: To make them applicable to ARPANET, just replace the word
"conference" with the word "mailing list" wherever it appears
below.
In addition to this, I believe that in the EIES computer conference
system, they have much experience on ethical guidelines for
computer-mediated message systems. I suggest that you ask someone
there to send in their guidelines. You could e.g. write to
"Elaine Kerr" <114%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
COPYRIGHT
Text in COM is copyrighted both by the author and the computer
centre running COM. Texts may be copied in single copies on paper
or to your personal computer for your own personal use. Other
copying requires permission from the computer centre.
A person who enters text into COM will thereby give permission for
this text to be copied to other message system according to the
principles commonly used for the COM system.
ADVERTISEMENTS IN COM
Commercial avertising is permitted in COM. However, QZ customers
who wish to publish advertisements in COM should to it only in
special COM conferences intended for the publication of
advertisements.
ETHICS, GENERAL
Just as in any other instance of human intercourse, certain ethical
guidelines should be applied to the usage of the COM system. Since
COM is a new medium which may be unfamiliar to many, it might be a
good idea to codify the more important of these guidelines in
writing. These guidelines are by no means mandatory, but they
should still be adhered to unless there are strong reasons for not
doing so.
MISREPRESENTATION OF FACT:
Should misrepresentation of fact occur in COM, this should be put
right at once, e.g. by using the COM command COMMENT to enter a
correction. Thus, the correction will automatically be sent to
anyone who got the misstatement before. Should the misrepresen-
tation be of personal data, routine procedure should also call for
erasing the entire notice containing the misstatement, by means of
the COM command ERASE OBJECT .
PASSING ON TEXTS:
Letters and entries of closed conferences should not be moved to
open ones without the author's permission.
POLITICAL PROPAGANDA:
The COM system should not be used for such activity as may be
interpreted as propaganda for a given political party.
This ethical rule does not prevent political discussions in COM.
Political questions might arise for various reasons; there might
for instance be discussions on research policy and other political
topics.
SUBJECTIVE STATEMENTS CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS:
Subjective statements concerning individual persons should not be
entered in open COM conferences.
IRONY:
Experience tells us that irony in COM is often misinterpreted and
taken seriously by mistake. This could be prevented by means of a
certain convention, accepted in COM. By this convention, you put
whatever you mean ironically within a special kind of "irony
parentheses". Like this: (. Text to be taken ironically .)
MAKING APPOINTMENTS VIA COM:
Making appointments via COM usually does not work very well. The
reason for this might be that COM is generally felt to be such an
interactive medium that you automatically try to make appointments
according to the same conventions as in face-to-face meetings. This
does not work. If you want to make an appointment via COM for a
physical meeting, you shall have to arrange for all participants
simultaneously to make a list of their available time. Guided by
this information, you may then quickly and easily book your
meeting.
SPECIAL PRIVILEGES OF THE ORGANIZERS:
The organizer's privileges of subtracting and moving entries, and
excluding members, should be employed with great care. Misrepresen-
tations of fact are often best corrected by means of a corrective
notice, in some instances combined with erasure of the incorrect
message.
The option to move entries should be used when the contents of an
entry has obviously no bearing on the purpose of the conference. In
this manner you will aid COM users who are trying to decide by
choice of conference what to read.Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (04/13/84)
Relay-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cmcl2.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP Path: cmcl2!floyd!harpo!ulysses!burl!hou3c!Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA From: Jacob_Palme_QZ@QZCOM.MAILNET Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup Subject: network etiquette Message-ID: <51634@QZCOM> Date: Fri, 13-Apr-84 16:20:00 EST Article-I.D.: hou3c.482 Posted: Fri Apr 13 16:20:00 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 19-Apr-84 16:28:50 EST References: <51632@QZCOM> Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) Reply-To: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, Message_Group_at_BRL%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Lines: 18 To: Message_Group_at_BRL%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, msggroup@BRL.ARPA Cc: "Elaine Kerr" <114%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>, "Murray Turoff" <103%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>, "Roxanne Hiltz" <120%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA> In-Reply-To: <51632@QZCOM> What is the opinion in the Arpanet mail community towards anonymous and pseudonymous messages? I have noted some messages without any FROM field, but I guess this was probably not any intentionaly anonymity. The SMTP sender cannot be avoided, but of course you could make it into <ANONYMOUS@HOST>. EIES are using anonymity, especially with pen names, quite a lot and claim that it has great advantages in certain applications where people would otherwise be too shy. COM allows anonymity, but it is not widely used. The COM-RFC-mail interface does not allow sending out anonymous entries, mainly because we must know the author to know whom to bill. This could be modified, since the author name can be found in the data base, even if it is not readable to users. We have been discussing to allow anonymity only in special conferences (Arpanet jargon: Mailing lists) where all entries are anonymous.
Jacob_Palme_QZ@QZCOM.MAILNET (04/13/84)
What is the opinion in the Arpanet mail community towards anonymous and pseudonymous messages? I have noted some messages without any FROM field, but I guess this was probably not any intentionaly anonymity. The SMTP sender cannot be avoided, but of course you could make it into <ANONYMOUS@HOST>. EIES are using anonymity, especially with pen names, quite a lot and claim that it has great advantages in certain applications where people would otherwise be too shy. COM allows anonymity, but it is not widely used. The COM-RFC-mail interface does not allow sending out anonymous entries, mainly because we must know the author to know whom to bill. This could be modified, since the author name can be found in the data base, even if it is not readable to users. We have been discussing to allow anonymity only in special conferences (Arpanet jargon: Mailing lists) where all entries are anonymous.
KPJ_Jaakkola_QZ_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (04/14/84)
Relay-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cmcl2.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP
Path: cmcl2!floyd!harpo!ulysses!burl!hou3c!KPJ_Jaakkola_QZ_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
From: KPJ_Jaakkola_QZ_@QZCOM.MAILNET
Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup
Subject: network etiquette
Message-ID: <51681@QZCOM>
Date: Fri, 13-Apr-84 19:13:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hou3c.481
Posted: Fri Apr 13 19:13:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Apr-84 16:28:44 EST
References: <51632@QZCOM>
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Reply-To: KPJ_Jaakkola_QZ_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, Message_Group_at_BRL%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Lines: 5
To: Message_Group_at_BRL%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, msggroup@BRL.ARPA
Cc: "Elaine Kerr" <114%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>, "Murray Turoff" <103%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>, "Roxanne Hiltz" <120%NJIT-EIES.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
In-Reply-To: <51632@QZCOM>
Re political propaganda:
Anyone may introduce their favourite political propaganda,
as long as it is certain who is the source. Never should
an administrator (in the role of an administrator) output
any propaganda (of whatever kind, political, religious etc).KPJ_Jaakkola_QZ_@QZCOM.MAILNET (04/14/84)
Re political propaganda:
Anyone may introduce their favourite political propaganda,
as long as it is certain who is the source. Never should
an administrator (in the role of an administrator) output
any propaganda (of whatever kind, political, religious etc).ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) (04/19/84)
The article that this article is a followup to <51632@QZCOM> was written by Jacob_Palme_QZ@QZCOM.MAILNET and not by myself. My apologies for the error. Kenneth Almquist
Jacob_Palme_QZ@QZCOM.MAILNET (04/26/84)
An advantage with pseudonyms over anonymous messages is that an intelligent mail system could allow you to reply, while still keeping the name of the person behind the pseudonym secret.