[H-GEN] Netiquette

[Anthony Towns]

Hello world,

Some tips:

	Read what you're about to post four or five times before you hit
	the send button. It'll save you embarrassment and everyone else
	a lot of agitation. This includes the headers, especially "To:",
	"Cc:", "Bcc:", "From:" and "Subject:". This also includes the
	body of your message. If you're posting something that you're
	*really* not sure about, ask a friend to review it first before
	posting. Seriously.

	If you *do* find that you make a mistake, think *very* carefully
	about whether it needs to be corrected, and if it does post the
	shortest post possible that will correct it. Quote just enough to
	give context, and just enough to give the correction. No more.

	If you're posting a question, think about whether you really need
	to ask a couple of hundred other people for help first, or if you
	can find out the answer on your own. /usr/doc/*, www.linux.org
	[0], and www.altavista.digital.com all have far more time on their
	hands to help with queries than most of us do here. So save us
	for the ones that they can't answer.

	If you're posting an answer, stop and check to see if anyone else
	has posted the answer first. If you have anything constructive
	to add, reply to their post, not the original question. If you
	don't have anything to add, don't say anything. If your mail
	reader makes this hard, get a new mail reader. 

	When you're replying to other people it's customary to intersperse
	your response with their questions, both so you can answer the
	actual question that was asked, and so everyone else has some
	idea what you're talking about. It's also customary to limit your
	quoting to the minimum possible to get your point across. Don't
	quote the "Hi, lovely weather we've been having" part of a post,
	unless you specifically want to say "Yeah, it's due to the Libido
	effect, I hear", so to speak. If your mail reader makes this hard,
	get a new mail reader.

	Finally consider whether you should be posting to the list, or via
	personal email. If it's a problem that other people could have,
	post to the list. If it's an on topic discussion, and other people
	are likely to be interested, post to the list. If it's a "yes, I'd
	like a Linux badge", don't. Adding a "</aol>" to a "me too" post,
	doesn't make it the height of wit, btw. Least of all when ten
	other comedians try the same thing in the space of ten minutes.

The basic rules are "think twice, post once", and have consideration for
your reader.

If you don't know all the above already, read the articles in
news.announce.newusers. Hell, read them again even if you do.

Cheers,
aj

[0] Or www.netbsd.org. Or www.freebsd.org. Or www.openbsd.org. Or
    www.sun.com. Or comp.os.*. You get the picture, I hope.

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj at humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. PGP encrypted mail preferred.

``NT, Networking, Security. Pick any two (you can't have all three).''
	-- _The Twelve Networking Truths_, RFC 1925, paraphrased 
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