Transcript Untangling the Web - E-Mail Etiquette

“Untangling the Web E-Mail Etiquette”
Written by: Keith C. Ivey
Presented by: Michael Persons
Introduction
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Learn how to use your e-mail program:
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General Readability:
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Keep your lines short
Check where your message is going before you send it
Use blind copy when sending mass messages
Don't use formatting
Use a signature
Don't send people things they can't read
Make your Web address easy for recipients to use
Don't overquote
Know when it is appropriate to send an email:
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Don't send junk
Use a meaningful subject line
What is “Netiquette?”
Netiquette is a term that has come into being in
the last ten years, blending the two words
“Internet” and “Etiquette”
It refers to the generally accepted conventions of
politeness that are used in email, message
boards, and general internet communication.
Learn how to use your e-mail program:
Keep your lines short
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Very often email programs will have a significant
difficulty formatting very long lines.
Word wrap is often done inconsistently between
email programs.
 Long lines of printed text are difficult to read.
 Try keeping to a maximum line length of around 64
characters.
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Learn how to use your e-mail program:
Check where your message is going
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Be very careful when replying to email, Look at
the "To:" and "Cc:" lines before you send!
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Often emails from long discussion lists are
forwarded incorrectly; an individual reply might be
sent to the entire list!
Use blind copy when sending mass messages
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To prevent the previous situation from occurring,
use the BCC field to send emails to a large number
of people. This ensures that any reply send to your
message is not passed on to each address on the list.
Learn how to use your e-mail program:
Don't use formatting
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Due to the prevalence of email-born viruses these days,
many email programs disable advanced formatting by
default, rendering HTML tags into distracting plain
text.
Avoid:
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Fancy HTML formatting
Italics, bold, font changes
Tables and graphics
Make sure to send only plain text to a discussion list.
Learn how to use your e-mail program:
Use a signature
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Most modern email programs give you the option of
automatically adding a few lines of text to the bottom
of each email.
When used properly, the signature allows for a very
professional and consistent mark on each email you
send. Included should be your name and contact
information.
However, cute sayings or ASCII text art are generally
seen as unprofessional. Keep it to four lines if possible.
General Readability:
Don’t send people things they cannot read
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Unless you know that the recipient's email program is
able to recognize advanced instruction sets, use only
plain ASCII text. Otherwise, the character will likely
show up as nonsense on the recipient’s computer.
Plain ASCII does not include
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curly quotes
Apostrophes
em dashes
other special characters
Keep to basic English characters. If you want to send
something a little more exotic, check beforehand with
your recipient.
General Readability:
Make your web address easy to read
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If you decide to include a web address somewhere in
your message, make sure to include the entire URL,
from the http://. This will tell most email programs to
automatically create a hyperlink, simplifying users’
experiences navigating to your webpage.
If you run a professional website, including your URL
in a signature is often a good idea.
General Readability:
Don’t over quote
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When you quote the message you're replying to, include
only the parts that are relevant to your reply. Make it
clear which text is quoted and which is yours.
The usual way is to mark the quoted text with a greaterthan sign (>) at the beginning of each line; your
program probably can do that automatically.
It is generally easier to read quotes that are included
before your reply, not afterward.
Know when it is appropriate to send email:
Don’t send junk
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Everyone familiar with email understands the
frustration of an inbox full of spam, chain letters, and
stale jokes.
Unless you specially know that your recipient approves
of your message, try to restrain from sending out
unsolicited, useless email.
Virus alerts can be helpful, but are often incorrect or
outdated. Check Computer Virus Myths
(http://www.kumite.com/myths/) before clicking
send if you absolutely must be heard.
Use a meaningful subject line. People are more likely to
respond to well thought-out emails with accurate titles
than random inquiries.
Any Questions?