Netiquette 101

How are we supposed to act online? Particularly in an academic unit it's difficult to know how to act, what to write and how to write. Virginia Shea has created 10 guidelines for navigating an academic online space without insulting everyone with witty remarks or being misunderstood because of misspelled words. Remember it's illiterate not alliteryte.

1.Remember the human: Remember that they are people you are talking to and not a computer screen. Be mindful of people’s feelings.

2.Online and offline standards of behaviour: Behave online how you would offline.

3.Know where you are in cyberspace: Observe conversation before contributing immediately.

4.Respect other people’s time and bandwidth: Ensure the time people spend reading your posts isn’t wasted.

5.Demonstrate good academic writing: Check spelling and grammar before submitting. Check academic referencing.

6.Share expert knowledge: Share your own personal knowledge.

7.Help keep flame wars under control: Focus on academic issues.

8.Respect other people’s privacy: The focus is academic discourse and not personal lives.

9.Don’t abuse your power: Seek to understand before being understood.

10.Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes: Inform classmates of mistake through private email rather than publicly in a discussion forum.