Communication Etiquette in Modern Media  
                                  Author *Unknown*  
    
  When involved in communications, especially in computer echos, awareness  
  of certain concepts make the activity more fun for everyone.  Two main  
  concepts stand out, primarily because people tend to REACT to negative  
  messages with negative responses.  
    
  1. Impersonal responses to personal attacks:  Computer communications  
  are almost always written.  Due to the fact that words carry only  
  limited information, the noise to information ratio can become very  
  dense, with a sentence the sender considered very mild becoming a  
  hurricane of emotion in the mind of the receiver.  Therefore try to keep  
  personal nouns and pronouns, like "you" and "your" out of any message  
  that may cause disagreement among the other members of the echo or net.  
    
  If necessary to express disagreement with an idea, couching the words of  
  your message in impersonal terms works best.  
    
  Bad response:  
  "I think you are stupid to think motherboards should just be thrown away  
  rather than fixed." This message may well cause the receiver to respond  
  with some nasty reply, clogging the net with negative personal argument.  
    
  Better response:  
  "I have always found that motherboards could be fixed."  This presents  
  an opposite view, but the receiver will less likely consider it a  
  personal attack.  
    
  If someone disagrees with you personally, or even attacks you viciously,  
  you have three options on an Echo or Net.  You can simply ignore the  
  message rather than responding.  You can respond in an impersonal but  
  polite way, not letting the attack affect you at all.  Or you can send a  
  message to the Moderator, expressing your unease at the tone or attack  
  of the message you received and let the moderator take care of it.  
    
  2. Understanding the Twit:  Occasionally, someone joins a net or echo  
  with only one interest, to cause as much uproar as possible. They may  
  simply personally attack every person on the net, or sometimes they  
  attack every idea or subject thread they find, for the same purpose.  
  They are often racist, sexist, nationist, or just plain stupid. If the  
  rest of the members of the net refuse to communicate with the twit, s/he  
  will usually lose interest and stop posting.  
    
  Sometimes normally reasonable people become twits without realizing it,  
  taking some argument or disagreement past the point of courtesy and  
  drawing in others.  The discipline of electronic communication really  
  requires a more detached viewpoint than normal in other communication  
  medias, because the usual subliminal undercurrents of communication one  
  receives in other two-way mediums do not exist.  Sarcasm and humor can  
  easily become misunderstood, and cause unintended ill feelings.  
    
  In electronic mediums, honesty, tact, and straightforwardness are of  
  great significance.  Without them, communication can stop cold.  
    
  In dealing with twits, especially the more obvious ones, there are five  
  common sense rules to always use:  
    
  Echoer's Common Sense Rule #1 (ECSR1): If possible, never READ twit's  
  posts. Step over manure or your shoe will stink.  
    
  Echoer's Common Sense Rule #2 (ECSR2): Never ANSWER a twit's posts!!!!!  
  Stirring manure makes it stink worse.  
    
  Echoer's Common Sense Rule #3 (ECSR3): Never QUOTE a twit's posts!!!!!  
  That's like smearing manure on your friends!  
    
  Echoer's Common Sense Rule #4 (ESCR4): Never MENTION a twit to another  
  echoer!!!  That's like sharing a manure sandwich!  
    
  Echoer's Common Sense Rule #5 (ECSR5): LET THE MODERATOR HANDLE THE  
  TWIT!!!!!  He has the right kind of manure shovel.  
    
  With these few hints, communication over computers can become a true joy  
  instead of a cold hassle.  
    
    
    
   * Origin: (1:3634/12)