A bit of Netiquette

For some people it can be difficult enough to observe certain etiquettes in everyday real life. The lack of manners can be appalling, more than, sometimes... But what about netiquette then, what's considered manners or lack thereof when it comes to behaviour online? Well, some things are pretty obvious, like spam or no spam, well-groomed choice of words and of course for us members of the lingua enforcement, correct spelling and *almost* zero tolerance regarding that...

But then all the tricky stuff - especially for us who actually don't spend all that much time online, who hardly ever chat or spend time at different online communities *never mind I host one, since it's my words and rules who are law there of course...* The special abbreviations, smileys - mostly hate those wholeheartedly, since I do believe one, as a grown up, should be able to express oneself with words and not stupid signs. In general. I use signs too sometimes, but just never stupid, colourful, feebleminded, little figures...

But what I find most intriguing when it comes to netiquettes is how we view e-mails. How we choose to express ourselves in them, how we initiate and end them, punctuation or not, how we sign them or not. Not to mention if we reply to them all, or if we choose to not sometimes and if so why.

First of all, I love e-mail return receipts! The recipient got it and if he or she chooses not to reply, then at least I've done my bit in a manner of writing.

But if a return receipt isn't possible, is it consider good manners to respond something like, thanks for your email which I received, I will write more later when I have the time etc? Or should we just work on the supposition that the e-mail has reached the recipient and if there's no response, it's just they who can't be bothered to reply, not interested, being rude, possibly figuring out the right way with words...

And how long should you wait for a reply before you take further action, if that's necessary? I mean it is really, very, very, VERY convenient with e-mails, and not having to bother with making phonecalls for some matters is really great in so many ways. But if you don't get a reply, and it's something semi-important, should you wait a couple of hours, or a day, e-mail again or should you pick up the phone? Where do you draw the line of borderline e-mail stalking?

When I write e-mails that are very important to me, for a whole lot of various reasons, I anxiously await reply. Now. And how come the recipient doesn't see it's all that important and casts aside everything else at hand, can't he or she see that the e-mail, my e-mail, is oozing urgency...?

What about my e-mailiquette then? Do I always promptly reply, or at least write a short note about having received the e-mail in question? Hrm, well, many times, probably too many times, no. I suppose I am as lazy as anyone else. And what might seem very urgent and important to the sender isn't gathered as important to me...

Or sometimes I just have to ponder a bit about the correct choice of words - it can very literally take hours to get the right three sentences done. Think about that the next time you get a short reply from me, this might be one of those hardworked for hours, from the bottom of my heart, kind of e-mails... Or not.

In summation - I do reply to most every e-mail I get that needs a reply - or at least from my point of view -, with exceptions of course. Exceptions like stupid, impersonal, mass e-mail and so on. Other than that, I think you can be pretty sure of that if I haven't replied I haven't received any e-mail from you. I'm not trying to be rude or completely lacking an e-mailiquette. That is, if you're not a long time friend and you know I can be a bit... muddle-heady sometimes...

PS Yes, it happens, I do misspell now and then, here and there, though I totally blame it on keypad slipperiness... DS