Netiquette

Netiquette - Network Etiquette

Netiquette is a portmanteau of "network etiquette". It is a collection of social conventions for communication on the Internet such as e-mail, mailing lists, forums ... Here is a subset of relevance for our mailing list.

Pay attention who you reply to

If you use "reply", your message will go the entire list. Pause a moment, and consider whether this is what you want. Perhaps your message is of interest to only a single recipient? Or your message may be personal, or confidential ...

Use informative subject lines

Spend a moment thinking what your post is about, then condense the message into a few words. This goes a long way towards

• allowing the recipients to estimate how interested they are in the contents of your message;
• retrieving a thread in your archived messages;
• browsing the archives for information;
• keeping the ensuing discussion on topic.

Try to be specific for example, this subject line is poor:

VMD doesn't work!

Much better would be

Can't load molecule in VMD after editing

If you must change the subject line, quote the old line as in:

New subject (was: old subject)

Don't hijack threads

If you have a new question, never simply write it into the reply to an older thread. If you don't give your post it's own thread:

1. your new question will end up in an unrelated discussion;
2. it will be much harder to search;
3. the original poster's question gets diluted and may never get appropriately discussed;
4. you demonstrate that you didn't actually care enough to type up a subject line.

Taking a thread away on a tangent is called hijacking a thread and is considered rude.

Use reply if you contribute to a thread, write a new mail or post if you have something new to add. Some mailing list software builds thread based on subject line and some software builds thread based on message ID. Only changing the subject line may not be sufficient to start a new thread. Since you usually don't know which does what, use the rule above to be sure.

As a corollary: if your post is related to the thread, by all means do use the reply function of your mail client and don't change the subject line, even if you think the original subject line was not well written or contained a (non-critical) typo etc.

Describe problems clearly

Sometimes your problems will be due to a faulty assumption, sometimes due to incompatible software, sometimes due to bugs, or errors in assigned tasks ... The more clearly you describe what you did and what happened, the more likely it is someone will be able to help. Simply stating "this or that didn't work" will get you nowhere. Ask yourself:

• Did I specify the circumstances under which the problem arose?
• Did I specify exactly what happened and what I believe the problem is?
• Have I given enough information so that someone else would be able to reproduce the problem?

Tell us that you've done "your homework"

The "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way" document gives the following excellent advice:

"Hasty-sounding questions get hasty answers, or none at all. The more you do to demonstrate having put thought and effort into solving your problem before seeking help, the more likely you are to actually get help. [...]

Never assume you are entitled to an answer. [...] You will earn an answer, if you earn it, by asking a substantial, interesting, and thought-provoking question - one that implicitly contributes to the experience of the community rather than merely passively demanding knowledge from others."

I can't put it any better.

Use mixed case and write full words

Using UPPERCASE ONLY IS THE TYPOGRAPHIC EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING; this is appropriate only under exceptional circumstances. some people use lowercase only. are they too lazy to find the caps key?

It also looks lik u cant B rly botherd 2 rite if u rite ur txt with textN shorth&.

Don't Troll

Just don't do it, oK?

No need to address me on the list

Sending a message to the list reaches all list members. That's the point of the list: we are sharing discussions with everyone. There is no need to address anyone in particular (not even your professor), unless you are responding publicly to a specific statement by that person. Even generic salutations - like Howdy or Dear all, are nowadays usually omitted for the sake of brevity.

Links

Dall'Olio et al. (2011) Ten simple rules for getting help from online scientific communities. PLoS Comput Biol 7:e1002202. (pmid: 21980280)

[ PubMed ] [ DOI ]

• Netiquette
• Virginia Shea's Core Rules of Netiquette
• How to Ask Questions the Smart Way for the technical minded, excellent advice!

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