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Paul Lindner
 

Remember Netiquette?

Remember Netiquette?

Back in 1990 I was a postmaster for a lab at the University of Minnesota. In addition to rerouting misaddressed email (this was pre-spam days) I once had to deal with someone sending offensive email to a mailing list. Long story short -- the student was hauled into the Deans office, counseled and subsequently apologized for their actions.

After that new accounts in my lab were required to read some basic netiquette info before going online (plus some legal verbiage about the "Minnesota Computer Crime Act")

In that environment actions had consequences and there were resources to help people learn how to use online tools appropriately. Today, it seems like there is much less accountability and bad behavior is tolerated, or even celebrated. Only the concept of the KILL file remains.

In any case here's Virginia Shea's internet classic - Netiquette including a forward from Guy Kawasaki

I used to think that network etiquette meant sticking a few smileys in your messages. I wish I had written Netiquette. It should be bundled with every modem. It should be mandatory reading for new users of the Internet. I wouldn't print my Internet address here without it.

Kawasaki@radiomail.net

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/

0 stars 4 comments

Of course it's rude to out someone. But not everything is about RN you know.

Paul Lindner, Aug 12 2011 on 1500wordmtu.com

I perfectly remember Netiquette, specially during those early days when I was running a BBS system and the messaging network was Fidonet (and others) and the message boards were full of new users using alias or false names and writting in caps :) I feel nostalgic...

Eduard Biete, Aug 12 2011 on 1500wordmtu.com

And here's what you get when emailing postmaster@google.com:

Thank you for your note. This is an automated reply. If you're reporting a spam email with a Google return address, please be assured that it did not originate with Google. Google does not permit others to send unsolicited email through its mail servers. A number of unscrupulous businesses have sent out mass mailings with forged Google return addresses. Google is actively pursuing all available legal means to stop these miscreants from abusing our name and your inbox. We appreciate your understanding, and please accept our sympathies for the inconvenience this may have caused.

For further assistance or to report a problem with a Google product, please visit http://www.google.com/support/ for a list of our Help Centers.

Regards,

The Google Team

Paul Lindner, Aug 12 2011 on 1500wordmtu.com

I was a postmaster too in the early years of the 90's. Coincidentally even at a university. I remember one day when I arrived at work to find a number of bounces from what appeared the same person.

In those days you could see all the headers easily and make out for whom the message was. Occasionally you would see part of the body (remember 80x25).

The first couple of messages where rather normal. What you would expect. Of course the sender did get the bounces too and he seemed to grasp what was happening. That a postmaster would be seeing his message. He tried different address to try to find the right one.

When he didn't find the right one he probably decided to have some fun with the postmaster. After a while the messages started to contain questionable information (not pictures or movies, remember the days without attachments). Probably trying to find out how easily the postmaster as offended or would take actions.

Those moments made the day.

We did have a procedure in place to forward the real message and not the bounce. It consisted of some header hacking and it worked well enough to make the intended recipient reply to the original sender instead of the postmaster.

Peter Peters, Aug 12 2011 on 1500wordmtu.com