Netiquette (neologism, a morphological blend formed from "Internet etiquette") is a catch-all term for the conventions of politeness recognized on Usenet, in mailing lists, and on other electronic forums such as Internet message boards.
These conventions address group phenomena (such as flaming) with changes in personal behavior, such as not posting in all uppercase, not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups, refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups and not top-posting. RFC 1855 is a fairly lengthy and comprehensive set of such conventions.
The rules of netiquette are slightly different for newsgroups, web forums and IRC (Internet Relay Chat). For example, on Usenet it is conventional to write in standard English and not use abbreviations such as "u" for "you" or "ne1" for "anyone".
These abbreviations are only slightly more likely to be tolerated on web forums, but are almost universal on IRC where, since discussion is real-time, they serve the practical purpose of speeding the flow of conversation.
Many IRC users look down on this form of conversation, though. Issues such as the level of tolerance for off-topic discussion or spoilers may also vary from one newsgroup, forum, or channel to another.
The rule of thumb in any of these discussion mediums is to "lurk before you leap"—get a feel for the local conventions before diving into conversation and inadvertently embarrassing oneself.
If you would like any further information or have any comments about the terms of use or any other aspect of the S10sys website or services of the company, please contact the company’s Corporate Responsibility Officer at: S10sys, 55 Dransfield Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S10 5RP.
