Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

Netiquette Resources

Compiled by Jeff Johnson and Susan Evoy

General Netiquette Websites

General Sources: Primary (mostly original material)

• Internet Engineering Task Force Netiquette Tutorial

  By IETF "Responsible Use of the Network" Working Group, 10/28/95. Comprehensive guidelines for email, chat, lists, newsgroups. Provides a "minimum set of rules" for using the Internet. This website is probably the single most comprehensive website on the topic of netiquette.
  http://w3.arl.mil/home/ netiquette/rfc18551.html

• Arlene Rinaldi's Netiquette Website

  Hosted by Florida Atlantic University. This may be the most widely cited netiquette website.
  Main Page: http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/n etiquette.html
  Table of Contents: http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net /index.htm
  Q&A: http://www.fau.edu/rinald i/net/questions.html

• Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail

  By Norman Z. Shapiro and Robert H. Anderson (RAND Corporation,1985). The most venerable netiquette advice available on the web.
  http://www.rand.org/publicat ions/MR/R3283/

• Business Netiquette International

  Netiquette guidelines for businesses, by Pearman Cooperative Alliance (Houston, TX). Netiquette advice, with emphasis on international business. (Section of "Business Start Page".) http://www.wp.com/fredfish/Netiq. html

• A Short Primer on the Internet and Netiquette

  Hosted by MagicPub.com (ISP). Contains info about using email, mailing lists, newsgroups, abbreviations and acronyms, and "smileys" or "emoticons", e.g., :-) . http://www.magicpub.com/net primer/home.html

• Netiquette Mailing List

  Listserv devoted to discussions of netiquette. Arlene Rinaldi credits it as source of many of her guidelines. nettrain@ubvm.edu

• A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email

  Comprehensive guide focused on email, by Kaitlin Duck Sherwood. http://www.webfoot.com/advice /estyle.html

• Zen and the Art of the Internet

  By Brendon Kehoe (Indiana University). Comprehensive guide to the Internet, including netiquette guidelines. http://www.cs .indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_toc.html

• Don't Spread That Hoax!

  Advice on recognizing and handling net hoaxes, by Charles Hymes. http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/h oax.html

• Emily Postnews

  Hosted by ClariNet, an Internet content provider. Tongue-in-cheek netiquette advice website, by Brad Templeton (the founder of ClariNet and a member of the Electronic Frontier Founcation's (EFF's) Board of Directors). Emily PostNews is a spoof of a newspaper etiquette column, providing intentionally bad advice in response to questions of netiquette.
  http://www.clari.net/brad/emily.ht ml

• Unofficial Smiley Dictionery

  by Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dictionary of "smileys", also known as "emoticons": character-based symbols for conveying feelings in textual communication, e.g., :-) .
  http://www.eff.org/papers /eegtti/eeg_286.html

General Sources: Secondary (mostly excerpts, summaries, links)

• Core Rules of Netiquette

  Hosted by Albion.com. Excerpts from Virginia Shea's book "Netiquette". http://www.albion.com/n etiquette/corerules.html

• Email Etiquette

  By G. Wicker. Covers, brevity, punctuation, abbreviations, smilies, salutations, signatures, threads, privacy, flames, newsgroups. http://www.netpath.net/~gwick er/email.htm

• Webland

  German website with summaries of and links to other netiquette websites. http://surf.germ any.eu.net/webland/p15/netiquette.html

• Life on the Internet: Netiquette

  By Cochran Interactive (ISP or content provider). List of favorite netiquette links. http://www.screen.com /start/guide/netiquette.html

Internet Access Providers:
Netiquette Guidelines and Acceptable Use Policies

ISPs & Online Services

• Albury Local Internet (Livingston, Australia)

  New Users Guide, summary of netiquette guidelines, links to major netiquette sites.
  http://www.albury.net.a u/new-users/netiquet.htm

• Albion.com (ISP and Internet book publisher)

  Excerpts from Virginia Shea's book Netiquette (Albion Press).
  http://www.albion.com/netiquette

• America Online

  General introduction to the net: http://www.aol.com/nethelp/home.ht ml
  Mailing list netiquette: http://www. aol.com/nethelp/lists/mailinglistnetiquette.html
  Newsgroup etiquette: http://www.aol.com/ nethelp/news/newsnetiquette.html

• Earthlink Network, Inc.

  Acceptable use policy: http://www.earthlink.net /company/aupolicy.html

• InReach Internet

  Acceptable Use Policy: http://www.inreach.com/inreach/ AUP.html
  Netiquette Guidelines distributed as chapter in hardcopy book, not online.

• Institute of Global Communications

  Subscriber Agreement: http://www.igc.or g/igc/help/agreement.html#ettiquette
  Users' Guide chapter on netiquette: http://www.i gc.org/igc/help/win-interact/manual/chap7.html
  Users' Guide info on dealing w/Spam: http://www.igc.org/igc/hel p/policy/spam.html
  Website also includes links to MIT's FAQs and Guidelines on newsgroup etiquette.

• NetCom

  Acceptable Use Guidelines: http://www.netcom.com/netcom/aug. html

• Pacific Bell Internet

  Acceptable Use Policy: http://public.pacb ell.net:8001/dialup/usepolicy.html

• Slip.net

  Acceptable Use Policy: "Slip.Net reserves the right to immediately cancel any account/web-site and refund unused monthly fees if that service is considered in Slip.Net's sole opinion to be harmful to Slip.Net. This includes excessive server use which might impact the availability of service to other customers, the posting of adult or illegal materials or the posting of material so controversial so as to incite attacks on slip.net by other hosts on the internet."

• The Well

  Member Agreement: http://www.well.com/member_ag reement.html
  Community Guidelines: http://www.well.com/conf/guide lines.html

Civic Nets

• Blacksburg Electronic Village

  BEV is a project of Virgiania Tech, so it uses Virginia Tech's user policy: http://www.bev.net/project/AUP.html

• Needham Online (local civic net in Needham, MA)

  A Short Primer on the Internet and Netiquette (from MagicPub.com, Needham Online's ISP): http://www.magicpub.com/net primer/home.html

• Seattle Community Network

  User agreement is part of registration process: http://www.scn.org/registration.ht ml

Colleges, Universities, K-12 Schools

• Augsburg College

  Internet Basics: Summary, links to major sites. http://www.augsbur g.edu/library/aib/mailmanners.html

• Bucknell University

  Netiquette, by Greg Smith, Systems Integrator. Short summary, no links. http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/ccs/insync/Vol.II/1994-09 -09-134423/17013.13.html

• Florida Atlantic University

  Netiquette, by Arlene Rinaldi, network administrator. http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/n etiquette.html

• Indiana University

  Zen and the Art of the Internet, by Brendon Kehoe. Comprehensive guide to the Internet, including netiquette guidelines. http://www.cs .indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_toc.html

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

  FAQ: Advertising on Usenet and Internet: How To Do It; How Not To Do It.
  ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/adve rtising/how-to/part1
  Rules for posting to Usenet: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/posting-r ules/part1
  Copy of Emily PostNews: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/emily-po stnews/part1

• Temple University

  Internet Etiquette by Stan Horwitz, Senior Academic Mainframe Consultant: ftp://ftp.temp le.edu/pub/info/help-net/netiquette.infohn

• University College Dublin (Ireland)

  Netiquette and Webiquette, by Caroline Conaty and Andrew Burton. Brief summary and links to other netiquette pages: http://midir.ucd.ie/~cconaty/ struct1.html

• University of Illinois

  Netiquette: Compiled from Computer Ethics Institute and Rinaldi site. http://c lasses.aces.uiuc.edu/ACES100/Net/Email/netiquette.html
  Netiquette chapter in "An Incomplete Guide to the Internet (for K-12 teachers and students)", by NCSA Education Group: http://www.ncsa .uiuc.edu/Edu/ICG/pt1.ch2.Etiquette.html

• University of Nebraska, Lincoln

  Internet Use Guidelines, by Dept. of Info Services. List of netiquette links. http://www.unl.edu/websat/use.html

• University of South Carolina

  Use policies: http://www.sc.edu/csd/policies.html

• University of Tennessee

  Email Netiquette, Rules & Regs. Brief summary. http://www.cas.utk.edu/docs/ch06. html
  Use Policy: http://www.cas.utk.edu/code.html

• University of Washington

  Brief overview of netiquette guidelines. http://weber.u.w ashington.edu/~dlamb/apra/netquet2.htm

• Dwight-Englewood K-12 Prep School (New Jersey)

  Netiquette: Excerpt from Hoffman book, plus links, e.g., to Rinaldi site. http://www.d-e.pvt.k1 2.nj.us/Internal/manner1.htm

Employers and Government Agencies

• RAND Corporation

  Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail, by Norman Z. Shapiro and Robert H. Anderson (1985). http://www.rand.org/publicat ions/MR/R3283/

• US House of Representatives

  Guidelines for Responsible Use of the Internet. Compiled from Dern and Krol books, Rinaldi website. gopher:/ /gopher.house.gov:70/OF-1%3a208%3aInternet%20Etiquette

Books

• Shea, Virginia, Netiquette, 1994, San Francisco, CA: Albion Press.
• Hoffman, Paul E., Internet Instant Reference, 1996, Sybex, ISBN: 0782118917.
• Dern, Daniel P., The Internet Guide for New Users, 1993: New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, ISBN: 0070165114.
• Krol, Ed, The Whole Internet Users' Guide and Catalogue, 1994, 1996, Wadworth Publishing Company, ISBN: 0534506747.
• Denning, Dorothy and Lin, Herbert, Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities, 1994, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press [reviewed in this issue].
• Willard, Nancy, The CyberEthics Reader, 1996, Reading, Mass: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, ISBN: 0070703183.

Updated Sept. 20, 1998