jerry (11/11/82)
Emily Post for Usenet
Usenet is a large, amorphous collection of machines (100s)
and people (1000s). Readers range from casual observers who
infrequently scan one or two groups to active participants
who spend a significant amount of time each day reading
news. Their ages, experience and interests also vary
widely. Some use the network solely for professional
purposes. Others use it to carry on a variety of exchanges
and interactions.
The kinds of interaction that occur in usenet are new to
almost everyone. The interactions certainly aren't face to
face. On the other hand submitting an item isn't like
standing up before an audience either. Nor is it like
writing an article for publication. Nor, since nobody edits
submissions, is it like writing a "letter to the editor" It
takes aspects of formal and informal communications, and
combines them in a new way.
Despite (or because of) these considerations usenet is a
useful communications technology whose use is enhanced when
people follow the emerging "net etiquette". Users at new
sites (those at which usenet has been available for less
than 3 months) should be especially cautious until they have
adjusted to this new form of communication.
The following list of suggestions is long, but I plead with
you to read it before submitting items.
1. Try to find the appropriate group for any submission.
(See below for a list of some important groups.)
2. When an item asks for specific information, or
requests a "vote", you should usually reply via mail
to the originator. Remember that many people will be
reading the item at more or less the same time and if
they all respond via a followup item, the net becomes
flooded with almost identical responses that can annoy
even people who were interested in the original
question.
3. When submitting an item that is likely to generate
responses, you can remind people of the previous point
by ending with "send me mail and I'll post the results
to the net". Of course, you then accept the
obligation of doing so.
4. Take care in preparing items. While usenet
interactions sometimes take on the flavor of casual
conversation, you should spend the time and effort to
make your item readable and pertinent. That includes
proper spelling and good grammar. And be sure you
have something new to say. In particular, be sure you
have understood earlier items. If you are in doubt
about an author's intent, carry on a private
interaction. Frequently a discussion starts with one
or two carefully prepared "position papers" and then
degenerates into repetitive claims.
5. Before reacting to an item (either with mail or by
submitting a followup) read all the followups that
have reached your machine. The readnews "e-" command,
which tells readnews to forget that you have read an
item, can be useful here. After you read an item you
think you will want to react to, do "e-", and go on to
read all the other items in the group. Then go back
to the original.
6. Always use an editor to prepare items for submission.
If you are using the "b" version of netnews you should
set the EDITOR shell environment variable to the
editor you want to use. This lets you correct
spelling, grammar, etc.
7. Don't be rude or abusive. I regret having to say
this, but I have seen too many items that start "John,
you idiot, ...", or contain phrases like "People who
think ... should be shot". I suspect much of this
rudeness is just carelessness. Modes of speech that
would be reasonable in private conversation may not be
reasonable in a semi-public forum such as the net.
8. Be careful about sarcasm and facetious remarks.
Without the voice inflection and body language of
personal communication these are easily
misinterpreted.
9. Titles should be descriptive so that readers can
decide whether to read or skip items based on the
title. For example, if you are having trouble with
your dishwasher you might submit an item titled "need
help with G.E. dishwasher" to net.wanted. Don't
submit an item titled "Need Help".
10. Whenever possible, give references. This means both to
other netnews items, and to external sources.
11. In posting summaries of replies, try to actually
summarize. Sometimes people just collect the items
they received. The mailed replies might just as well
been submitted to the net. At the least the replies
should be edited to eliminate redundancy and
irrelevancy.
12. Whenever possible, be brief. Some people read news
over slow (300bps) terminals, and watching a 15 line
"signature" that you have seen ten times before gets
boring. There are many exceptions to this rule, this
item being one of them.
13. Here is a list of some groups that are important to
the smooth functioning of the network, or are
frequently used improperly
net.general This group is only for announcements
and queries that need to be read by
everyone. Followups and discussions
should never go here.
net.followup This is the place for continuing
discussions that have started in
net.general. In some versions of
the usenet software, using the "f"
command to an item in net.general
will put your submission in
net.followup, but you can also
submit items directly.
net.misc This is the place to carry on
frivolous discussions, arbitrary
chat, and rambling discussions. New
groups are frequently spawned from
these discussions. For example, if
you want to start a discussion about
the quality of cafeteria food, put
an item in net.misc.
net.wanted This group exists for posting
queries for help. ("I know somebody
must have a program to compute ...")
net.jokes Put CLEAN jokes here. Do not submit
jokes that might offend any readers.
This group is often seen by people
who do not regularly use computers,
and there have been several
instances of problems raised by
offensive jokes. There have also
been several extended discussions of
the relation of this issue to free
speech. The conclusion of these
discussions has always been that
because the net exists largely at
the sufferance of large
institutions, who foot the bills, we
should all be very careful about
offending anyone. Almost any
racial, or sexual reference will
offend somebody. The safe rule is:
don't submit a joke unless you have
seen similar ones in this group
already.
net.jokes.d Discussions about humor go here, not
in net.jokes
net.news Discussion of all aspects of usenet
itself belong here.
net.news.group Creating a new group affects all the
machines on usenet. Before you do
so, submit an item proposing the new
group to net.news.group and to
specific groups that may share
interests with your proposed new
group. If after a week or two, you
have been contacted by some people
who support the idea, and you
haven't received any strenuous
objections, go ahead and create the
group.
net.sources After being announced in some
appropriate place Useful programs
and shell scripts are put here.
14. Here are some queries that seem to be submitted
frequently by new users. Please don't ask them out of
idle curiosity.
- "Where does foobar come from?" In my opinion the
best answer seems to be "Fouled up beyond all
recognition". There are lots of versions of this
"Acronym", in particular "Fouled" is usually
replaced by a less polite word. (See discussion
of net.jokes for the reason I use the polite
word.)
- "Does anybody know my freshman roommate, John
Doe, who I haven't seen in years but I think
works at Bell Labs?" If you really want to know,
try calling any Bell Labs location and asking the
operator. (The Murray Hill number is 201-582-
3000.) They have lists and telephone numbers of
all employees. The same of course applies to DEC
or UCB or whatever.
- "How do I reply via mail to items from sites with
funny names?" These are mainly ARPANET sites, and
there are technical problems with communication
between usenet and ARPANET. For the moment the
answer is: in general you can't.
- "Is being called a 'hacker' a complement or an
insult?" Some people think one, some think the
other. If you want to be unambiguous find
another word.
Phew!! Don't let this long list intimidate you. The net
exists to be used. It is a powerful tool and as long as
people treat it as a tool and not a toy it will prosper.
Jerry Schwarz
harpo!eagle!jerry