Week 1: Clear

The internet is some serious business, so everyone should abide by the unwritten laws of the internet, aka Netiquette. Netiquette (witty title, by the way) is just another word for common courtesy via cyberspace. Surfing the internet with caution and interacting with other people through it with civil attitudes makes the vast cyber world a lot less scary and a lot more enjoyable. It's crazy to think that the rules of netiquette have been around since even before the beginning of the world wide web, and they haven't changed! Times change, but the rules of common courtesy do not.
The main rules of netiquette can be found and explained perfectly on this page: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html


One entity of Netiquette that I cannot stress enough is the proper usage of ALL CAPS. As much as we find it necessary to utilize the caps lock key to stress a certain point, it actually does come across as screaming through the computer screen. And then before you know it, the person on the other end thinks you're being rude and everything gets lost in translation, ultimately ending in miscommunication. If you really want to stress a word, italicize. It's just as effective and does not come off as yelling or being rude. Moreover, I think that typing in all caps makes some one come off as illiterate because I assume that they do not know when to capitalized letters.
Public Domain. http://www.bestbytepc.com/uploads/2/6/6/1/2661857/7237729_orig.jpg

Netiquette is definitely essential in completely understanding communication via internet, but not everyone knows it nor does everyone abide by it. However, just because others aren't savvy with their netiquette skills doesn't mean that you have to join them in their ignorance. You're always going to offend someone, even if you abide by the rules of netiquette. As historian and archaeologist Don Ritter once said, "No matter how well you know the rules of netiquette, you will eventually offend someone who doesn't." Which person would you rather be?

Public Doman: http://neonlibrarian.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/netiquette.jpg