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What is Netiquette?and why is it worth to hear?

Netiquetteis a set of rules for behaving properly online. Simply stated, it�s network etiquette. (Netiquette, Virginia Shea) It primarily involves any communication you may send out or receive from the net. Cyberspace is a place that people meet and exchange information, as long as it involves place and human, it creates it�s own culture. To avoid offending people when you are not intend to or being offended due to misunderstood of what other says, knowing more about Netiquettein different internet environments is essential to every cyberspace citizen.

Why there are differences in Netiquette for email and chat room user and what are the differences?

The nature of the way of people communicates in email and chat room is different. Email is a more personal way to communicate. In most situations, senders know the audience of their messages. Whereas, chat room is a more public place, which the message posted could be seen by everyone and also, responded or criticized by anyone in the chat room. Thus, the means of communication in chat room is more interactive with its ability of synchronize respond, while the one of email is relatively more like a single way of message sending as its reply usually comes back after a day or even more. The asynchronous nature of email is usually because of that people have different schedule to check their email account and do not know someone has something to tell them until they have it checked. Thus, it takes time for receivers to respond or consider if they should take action against the message they got. However, people in chat room have a purpose to communicate with others under certain topics, therefore, they gather in the same place at the same time.
With different communication practices in email and newsgroup/chat room, different Netiquetteare required.

A proper subject header that reflects the content of an email should be required as it gives an idea of receivers what are you going to tell them. Since email receivers can not get an instant reply from senders for clarification, email senders should include enough information, if necessary, attachment in the email as an reference for receivers to understand the message. However, to make the mail more readable? it should not be too long, says over 100 lines is considered as too long. Besides, attached files should not be larger than the receivers?email account can afford. Nevertheless, messages got synchronize respond in chat room. The more instant is it, the easier for people to clarify what they mean. Very often, people use symbols or short forms in chat room to make fast and quick respond. However, senders should be sure that those symbols and short forms they used are well known by other users and would not be misunderstood to offence people. Be careful of the slang that may not be understood by people in other countries.

To find out what is acceptable and what is not in a forum or chat room, Virginia said, it is always a good idea to go through the previous conversations and messages, observe for a while and get a feel of the atmosphere and culture of it before you join the discussion. It is easy to offense people when you keep asking something that is already answered. Furthermore, since anyone can enter any chat room or forum and there are so many in the internet, it helps you to make sure you are in the right place to discuss what you want to talk about. For example, in a Health - Fasting chat room when people are mainly discussing how fasting helps cleaning up toxins and battling cancer, but you just want to know how fasting can help to lose 10lbs in 3 days. You are definitely in a wrong place.

When you are going to forward an email to people, you should think twice and be sure that information is relevant to the receiver or if they want to receive it. Unsolicited email advertising or chained mail is always unwelcome. Unlike email that receiver can easily know who is the sender, it is not uncommon to have over ten or more users talking in one chat room or posting messages in a message board. Messages or conversation lines go very fast, which is hard for users to follow who say what sometime. If users are sending a message in respond to a specific message posted, they should address it to that particular message sender by mentioning his/her user name.

Despite of the above differences, there is a prime simple rule that is applicable to anywhere in cyberspace, do unto others as you�d have others do unto you (Netiquette, Virginia Shea). Even when you are facing a computer screen, please remember you are talking to a real people in another side.

According to Virginia Shea, "Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. It is a long-standing network tradition and can be lots of fun, to both write and read. However, a destructive flame war could spoil the tone and even dominate the chat room, which is not fair to other group members who are not involved. If you find a topic that offends you or do not feel comfortable with the tone of the chat room, just leave it.

Creating and maintaining a health environment in public cyberspace is part of the responsibility of every net citizen. Unacceptable or destructive behavior may get you banned from that server, or even put into jail.