Instant messaging/Chat room etiquette
Don’t type in all capital letters Whenever you are online and in conversation, always try and avoid the use of uppercase characters. The effect of all capitals has the appearance of shouting. It is difficult to convey emotions or irony or sarcasm in most electronic communications, so many e-mailers and chat-room participants use all capitals to express anger or other strong emotions which may not be the sentiment you wish to convey at all.
Never ‘pounce’ on others
Pounce in general means to attack suddenly. Just like you would not pounce on someone in real life, don’t do it in the virtual world. ‘Pouncing’ refers to sending someone an instant message immediately after that person signs in. The other person might have other important things to do. Always wait for a few minutes before starting the conversation.
Tell other users when you are away and respect the ‘busy’ or ‘away’ status.
Whenever you are away from your desk or computer, always take time to change your status. Most of the instant messaging services have the option of selecting ‘away’ or ‘busy’ and you should make use of it. It is not a good idea to have people waiting for you to respond.
Proper fonts/colors are important
This might seem like a less important thing to do but it can be very annoying. While you chat, always make sure you use subtle visible colors and appropriate font size. Huge letters are not only annoying but also difficult to read.
Long messages are a complete ‘no’
We all know how difficult it is to read a message that takes up more than a line or two. So, while online and in a conversation, always make sure your message is not more than five lines in length. However, if you have something long to say to someone, why not email the person? Also you can break the message into short sentences and send it.
Try not to get banned
You are likely to get banned if you violate the rules of a particular chat room or a discussion forum. Being ‘banned’ means that you are banned by an administrator after saying something offensive or breaking any other rule to prevent you from being able to do so again.
Email etiquette
Avoid forwarding junk mail It is intolerably annoying to see your inbox filled with junk emails. And it is the same with everyone else. Nobody welcomes junk emails. Think of it. Everyone pays for their Internet usage and by sending them junk emails you are not only wasting their time but also their money.
Consider your audience
While writing an email it is extremely important that you keep in mind who you are writing for. A casual email beginning with a ‘hi’ might be okay if the receiver to your email is a close friend of yours. An email directed to a professional or an email for a job interview, however, should never look casual and definitely not have ‘hi’ on the top of the message box. Write as if you would write a regular application starting with ‘respected sir/madam.’ Also be careful with your email.
Using threads makes it is easy
A thread basically is a chain of responses for an initial message posting. It is advisable to be use threads because it enables you and everyone else who reads the post to follow or join an individual discussion. Because a thread is shown graphically having the initial and successive messages it becomes easy to understand the topic of discussion. Even while you email, a thread will make it easier for you and the other person to keep track of what you have been talking about while new messages every time can be confusing and time consuming.
Use quotes
When you receive an email you have to reply to it. You hit the reply button and start typing. However, when you do that, the reply you send goes along with everything that came in the email. This will only make the email long, what you can do is to use quoting the option. To do this simply copy the part of the text you wish to quote and place a > before each line.
Be appropriate
You can write anything you feel like if and when the email is directed to a friend. However, the same language will not be acceptable if it is a work related email even if it is to the same friend. Always make sure that while writing emails for official purposes, you should avoid using online abbreviations and smileys, also it is good idea to be paying more attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
What is spamming?
Spam emails are the ones that are sent to many people at the same time. Mostly these emails are advertisements of products or anything else that is not of importance to the receiver. While in chat rooms, spamming refers to typing the same thing repeatedly.
Now with all these things in mind you are definitely going to be an appropriate Internet user.
Happy communicating!
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