"Netiquette" (net-a-kit) is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace.

We can learn Netiquette basics through excerpts from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. Shea's "Core Rules" are the classic introduction to the subject and are widely cited in cyberspace. Click on www.albion.com/netiquette for excerpts. The entire book is also online there. It makes for both interesting and amusing reading. You'll learn a lot about yourself and others. Below are some of my personal favorites.

DON'T SHOUT!!! IT'S RUDE AT BEST AND IT MAKES PEOPLE ANNOYED. WHEN YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPS, YOU'LL BE LABELED A "SCREAMER." Also it is harder to read than in upper and lower case. There now, aren't you happier reading this?

Lurk before you leap. When you enter a domain of cyberspace that's new to you, take a look around. Spend a while listening to the chat or reading the archives. Get a sense of how the people who are already there act. Then go ahead and participate. Otherwise, you may write something inappropriate, unethical or hurtful.

In the old days, people made copies with carbon paper. You could only make about five legible copies. So you thought good and hard about who you wanted to send those five copies to.

Today, it's as easy to copy practically anyone on your mail as it is not to. And we sometimes find ourselves copying people almost out of habit. In general, this is rude. People have less time than ever today, precisely because they have so much information to absorb. Before you copy people on your messages, ask yourself whether they really need to know. If the answer is no, don't waste their time. If the answer is maybe, think twice before you hit the send key.

If you've sent email to someone and haven't received a response as quickly as you expected, don't just assume that your correspondent is goofing off. Give him the benefit of the doubt and check whether your message ever arrived. This is a variation on the old grandparents' trick for eliciting prompt thank-you notes: "I didn't get a letter so I was worried that you didn't receive my gift." It works pretty well. If the note was, in fact, lost, you've done your correspondent a favor. And if it wasn't, you'll probably embarrass him into action.

And this from Computer Link: "How much of your email is filled with e-jokes, chain letters or urban legends (like Klingerman's Virus) that have circled the cyber-globe so many times they would be ragged around the edges if email could tatter? These you get from people who actually know you—nice people, smart people, good people who really ought to know better."