Netiquette, Tips & Hints

On a matter of behaviour:

• In short: first, use your brains, then keyboard and mouse.

General

• There is no reason to be rude, just because this is an internet forum. Keep in mind that there is always a human on the other end of the line.
• Always remember that the forum can be accessed by anybody and is thus not the place to post confidential information.
•  It is of course allowed to say that you dislike a statement, thread or posting, be it because of content or style. In this case it is especially important to be friendly and calm.
• Especially when it comes to political discussions or issues about opinions of individuals, it is important to be friendly and calm. A different opinion is not always wrong - first of all, it is different. 

Style of postings

• Business Card: A forum posting could be referred to as your personal business card. Keep in mind that others might get a bad opinion of you, if your postings are written in bad style.
• Keep an eye on spelling and interpunction, because such things make your postings easier to read.
• Using CAPSLOCK is considered SHOUTING in most forums and communities.  Writing without the use of caps is also very distracting. Mixed caps is the right choice.
• Using too many punctuation marks is very rude and does in no way help readers to understand your opinion better !!!!!!!!!!!! Correct??????????
• Irony and sarcasm are hard to understand in texts and do often cause trouble.
• Quoting is a very good thing to do, if the posting you are relating to is older and there are some postings between your posting and the related posting. Excessive quoting, however, is not helpful at all.

Keeping your forum tidy

• Subject: please choose a subject title that is easy to understand and gives clear reference to the issue that is discussed for each thread you open. Subjects such as "NEED HELP, WAAAAAH!!!!" are not very helpful.
• Keep an eye on the subject of threads: if your posting is not or just in the broadest sense related to the thread topic, it might be better to open a new thread. It is otherwise called "thread-hijacking" and not very polite.
• One topic per thread is enough! Threads tend to become confusing. Moderator The moderator is the boss, do what he or she says.

Other rules

• These rules do not replace the Terms&Conditions of the ESP.