by Rose Spotts

Created on: August 02, 2008

Netiquette has been around since the beginning of the internet. Or at least since the beginning of so many home computers and various social networks. According to netiquette there is a right and wrong way to act and speak on the internet. Not everyone abides by these expectations, and really that is all they are. There is no "international standards for online behaviour and etiquette", it is just something we happen to know. Well, most of us know and then some of us just ignore.

In terms of internet behaviour, how we behave online is not always how we behave in the real world. By this I mean, we can assume other "sides" of ourselves. Perhaps we are not so outspoken in the real world or assertive; online we can be that person because we don't have to be face to face with anyone, which is usually why we have such fears in the real world. Of course there are those who assume entirely different personas and I'd have to say that is probably frowned upon by most people in terms of how to behave on the internet. We won't even get into online stalking...that type of behaviour is for another time, another topic.

Now as for etiquette...we think of etiquette as "proper". What is proper when it comes to the internet? As stated previously, there is no standard set up by anyone, it is almost as though we should just some how "know". I'm sure there are books out there on the topic but at this point I haven't read any (and I probably never will). A few things we should just naturally know seem to be: do not type in all caps - it is synonymous with yelling; do not send useless forwards - no one reads them anyway; you should never break up with someone via the internet and other sensitive subject matter - these things should be spoken to the person; on message boards and forums it is very impolite to reply to the same thread multiple times in a row - that is basically spamming the thread. These are only a select few issues among those who abide by netiquette. You can always tell a "newbie" by their lack of concern for some of these issues. You can't blame them, especially if they are new to the internet and email and forums and all of that fun stuff you can do online. You can, however, politely inform them but whether or not they will listen is another story.

Online behaviour and etiquette is not set up by some all ruling internet government system (thankfully!) but it is, instead, a system which many of us abide by out of respect for others on the web. It is there for a reason or is it? I mean, if we never knew about it would these things even bother us when they did occur? This could get deep and probably go on forever. These are just thoughts, not philosophies, so take from it what you will. Hopefully it gave you something to think about.

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