E-tiquette

Years ago there were fairly formal rules on letter writing: bread and butter thank you, professional, personal (dear … comma or colon?) Unfortunately, with the Internet, it seems all the rules – or lack thereof – are created by those who never attended school. So, yes, there are rules of comportment whether it is an email, an instant message, a webcam, or blog.

Let’s start with email. First should one have a more personal address for the person you are writing? Should it be “Ms. Abigail Adams”<abbybaby@xyz.com> or does abbybaby@xyz.com suffice? Since the vast majority of users have no idea how to set up an address book, abby@ is acceptable; some businesses set up the full form, which should be added to ones address book – again assuming one knows how..

Then come the cc and bcc bits. In the old days of business (last millennium), cc or carbon copy was sent to peers or anyone other than the addressee who would appreciate being kept in the loop. It should really have become xc or pc, as no one was really using carbon paper anymore but xerox or photocopies. In short, cc established who the players were.

Bcc, or blind carbon copy, however is a foreign concept. If one really wanted to send copies outside the loop, one would make an extra photocopy and surreptitiously give it to the whistleblower or whomever it was who needed the scoop on the loop. With email, it has a necessary politeness. As no doubt everyone has received jokes forwarded and forwarded with lists and list of other people’s email addresses before the joke, there is a mechanism to stop the madness. First, in the body of the item being forwarded, one should remove the unnecessary addresses as it is impolite to send an email in which the subject matter is the last item in the note. We are all very busy and our email is approaching the quantity of our junk mail.

More importantly, however, is the sense of privacy one owes ones friends. The email with all the cc’s is advertising to the world all your friends’ contact information –which spammers extract for their dubious purposes. The correct way to send such email is to send the item to yourself and bcc your friends and family, which hides the addresses to which you sent it. The bad news is that your friends/family may send it on to each other not knowing who has received it; the good news is that Aunt Sarah does not learn you have the private address of her daughter, hotbuffchick@staiduniv.edu. The only obvious exception is that you are the technical guru in charge of capturing the preferred email address of everyone in the group – in which case you would happily cc everyone, saying this is the family/fishing/Italian list of members wanting contact.

The body of the letter has a quirky set of rules.

FIRST, AS WE ALL KNOW, NO ONE TYPES MESSAGES IN UPPERCASE; THIS IS RUDE AND LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. It also makes you look incompetent and not worth reading …(what, you don’t know how to unset caps lock?!)

There is no need to type Hello Everyone, or Dear Xetiphia. We have all been formally introduced in the To or cc line items.

The text should be typed as simply as a letter, with no indents -- as the vast majority of public email programs do not support indent. Hit the tab key and you may well find yourself in Google ads or whatever else AOL or Hotmail have surrounded your letter with. Spacing is not encouraged either, as it may well be lost upon receipt. If one remembers the phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty”, this is exactly what happens in the 21^st century with email: the molecules do not come together precisely as sent; something is bound to become lost or look a bit … odd.

Hence flush left, and paragraph double-space.

The signature now has a flourish. You can get yourself verified, so that anyone who receives your mail will know it came only from you; this is comparable to Verisign and Entrust with corporate solicitations. It is not free.

The other item is to have a witty saying of the day that only you would possibly think funny under/over your name. Do put a name that everyone you are sending to will recognize. Your actual email address (vje570c3@verizon.net) is pretty meaningless – and may even be deleted as spam – which brings me back to the subject. Use a term or family name to show you are one of the clan or would like to be.

And, yes, spelling still matters … Mercifully, some things do not change. Oops, and still forwarding, replies, attachments to cover!

* * * * *

The basic knowledge required for email:

Know how to get to hotmail/yahoo/aol from Firefox/IE
Know how to read/delete mail
Know how to check all folders and what they mean (eg, spam/junk, inbox, sent ...)
Know how to keep a copy of all sent emails
Know how to save an attachment
Know how to add an attachment
Know how to reply to an email; know "reply all" difference
Know how to forward email (eg, jokes, pictures)
Know what cc & bcc do and difference
Know how to log out of email/protect your privacy

Advanced:

Know how to cut and paste parts of email to send
Know how to add to address book
Know what attachments should NOT be opened (eg, .exe, .asp)
Sending mail to yourself: why?
Create & manage multiple folders

Netiquette:

NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS
Do not Reply All unless you know everybody on list
If forwarding, remove unnecessary comments/threads
Privacy: if sending/forwarding email, do not put all addresses in To; use Bcc instead
Do not forward hoaxes, chain letters, or similar "spam"

Archie specializes in tutoring and training of seniors in PC security, Windows, Internet, and Microsoft Office. He holds the CompTIA A+ certification and is often featured speaker at Goodwin House in Alexandria; he can be emailed at ama3@tfci-us.com