Topic 123

Etiquette rules for appropriate behaviour when using the Internet by Akira


First of all what kind of problems do the Internet have about behavior? For example people can post false information to confuse other users, or they can write bad things about friends or about some one’s homepage. These examples are clearly not appropriate. Etiquette rules play an important role in the Internet. If it didn’t exist the Internet would be a mess and it would be much harder to get information and chat rooms would be in chaos. The etiquette rules are the things that are keeping the Internet together.

Some issues concerning this topic is spamming, misunderstanding through the written text and flaming or out-of-control ranting between e-mail correspondents. Spamming is where a person, company or an organization sends undesired email, which often advertises a product. Most of the time the message is sent to random recipients and it often becomes your bulk mail. Still some mails end up in your inbox by misspelling a spam filter trigger words. Also this can be a big issue with privacy because you can sometimes see the other email addresses that received the same message. Misunderstanding through the written text includes jokes taken seriously and capital letters. (Considered as shouting and can be offensive) Also flaming is an issue because exchanging emails and messages full of swear words cannot be considered appropriate behavior on the Internet

There are few possible solutions that can overcome these problems. For example we can censor the swear words that appear on chat, message board, or even on emails. Another way to solve the problem is to deny the access from the people who caused problems at the certain site in the past. This would keep the people who write swear words and offensive messages out from the site. Also we can write messages so they wouldn’t cause any misunderstanding between the users. In case of spamming we can block all the messages that you don’t have in your address book. This would prevent any unnecessary email out of your inbox. Unless the spammers are able to add their email address in your address book you would not be bothered by the junk emails.

First of all swearing or making fun of another user on chats or message boards would be considered very unethical, especially because the person making fun never met the user and doesn’t know anything about the user. Also it would cause a unnessasry problem for the others who are using the site. Another issue is the spamming by the companies and individuals. This is because they are sending numerous undesired messages to random people for their own profit. Mostly everything that goes against the etiquette rules would be considered unethical.

The person who is responsible would be the person who breaks the etiquette rules. This is obvious because it means the person didn’t act in a way that respected the other users. Even if you didn’t know the rule it is still your fault because you didn’t take the time to check out the rules for using the Internet but if it is intentional it is much worse.

So overall there are many issues and problems concerning the etiquette rules and appropriate behaviors when using the Internet. I think this comes from the fact that it is hard to determine what people are doing on the Internet because most people stay anonymous. Also most people don’t even bother to read sites about etiquette rules because they think no one would find out what they are doing, and this is true in most cases. Still following the rules would be important to keep Internet pleasant.