In the 1900s, it was considered impolite if a gentleman did not open the door for a lady, or stand up when she left the room. Are the rules that governed the social lives of gentry a century ago still pertinent to a society now consumed in technology?
In light of the new year at The Paly Voice, our advisor recommended that we review simple "netiquette" rules in order to create a positive and coherent group environment.
The "Core Rules of Netiquette," an excerpt from the novel Netiquette by Virginia Shea, discusses guidelines for behavior on the Internet, from emailing to blogs. This passage can be viewed at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html. While we were considering these rules several issues regarding our site and our Yahoo! Groups email account were raised.
There are countless instances on public blogs, and even on the Voice staff email, where individuals quibble about petty things. One such instance is when there unfortunately was a miscommunication concerning the correct editors’ Yahoo! Group email, which resulted in staff members sending their stories to the entire staff. In lieu of this, several Voice members complained about the extraneous emails accumulating in their account.
In addition, last year we had, on a few occasions, someone who would email the entire staff with "I agree," or "OK" in response to a previous and broader email, rather than send it to the individual for which it was intended. Voice sophomore Aditi Bellary suggested that if there were separate Yahoo! Groups for the different beats of the Voice staff, such as sports, arts and entertainment, then the superfluous email problem could be reduced.
Email etiquette not only consists of polite interaction between the sender and receivers, but also the manner in which the email is written. Members of discussion groups, such as The Paly Voice, should display pride in their work and not project the image of someone who cannot spell. I myself have received countless emails, not in relation to Voice, in which the letter’s intent is completely obscured by grammatical and spelling errors.
Editor-in-chief senior Nathan Lui remarked that since "we run a prominent Web site, as a staff we should maintain a certain degree of professionalism in our emails and blogs." He also brought up the concern of spreading unsubstantiated rumors, which can lead to heated arguments.
These paltry email quandaries can unfortunately morph into Internet feuds, or in Shea’s words, "flame wars." Webmaster junior Patrick Horn believes that these arguments are a major issue online. Racial insults along with the use of profanities become an issue that results in censorship or the canceling of user privileges.
In contrast to Horn, Voice senior Jim Shen believes that "flame wars can be fun." He argue that if the emails and names of the offenders are displayed along with the writing, then flame wars could be constructive. It might even enlighten a flamer to another opinion that he or she had not thought of before.
Netiquette overall is important for maintaining order in online society.
"Just because the Web is a different environment, [than everyday life] all the normal ethic and moral codes should apply," stated Voice junior Colin Hwang.
Without any sense of decorum on the web, respectable Web sites would collapse, including The Paly Voice. Viewership would decrease because everyone would be too insulted to retain anything of value. Therefore, staff sophomore Matthew Nguyen argues, these online rules of deportment should be posted on every Web site that allows blogging, or public writings.