|
|
List Netiquette Page |
Remember, people can't see your facial expressions or hear your tone of voice when your words are typed. They may take you seriously when you mean to be humorous. Also, many people have mailers which will only accept messages falling under particular guidelines. It is considered good manners on the internet to attempt to convey your facial expression or tone of voice when you say something, and also to attempt to ensure your messages will not cause system problems for others. The following suggestions are good rules to live by if you want to keep everyone else happy with you. :)
THIS IS
SHOUTING. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS. Just take the caps lock off and 'talk'
in a normal 'voice' whenever you can. The exception would be when you're
typing acronyms or warnings, and sometimes to EMPHASIZE a word, phrase or
sentence, although there are other ways to emphasize them (see below). See
the section on acronyms and the SPOILERS definition below.
Use emoticons frequently.
An emoticon is a sideways smiley-face made using punctuation and letters.
A basic grin is :) or :-) depending on whether or not you want to include
the nose. Other emoticons can express stress or nervousness :-} or be a
silly grin with big eyes 8-) or many other things.
Some people prefer
to use <g> for a grin instead of :-). I use both so you never know
what you'll get from me. Variations on <g> include <vbg> (very
big grin) and <vbeg> (very big evil grin - this one usually means
the grinner knows they are being a brat, as in "Ha! I just got the very last
TBAA book in the city and I had to brag about it! <vbeg>" It usually
doesn't mean they're trying to scare anyone.) :-) There is a sample list
of emoticons and translations at the bottom of this note. If you're not
sure how someone will take something you type, add an emoticon! :)
When replying to a
message, don't quote the entire thing back at the sender or list. Try to
keep the quotes to four lines or less. It's OK to quote four lines, reply
to that, and then quote another four lines. If you need to quote more than
four lines at a time, just paraphrase what the other person said.
Also,
please be aware that quoting private e-mail to a mailing list is generally
considered bad manners. If you do this, be certain you have permission from
the person who wrote it and realize that you are responsible for everything
you post, whether you're quoting someone else or not.
If you don't know how to remove all the extra lines from your messages when
you reply, see your system administrator. There's a way to do it on most
systems and a few minutes extra may be annoying to you but that's better
than annoying 300 other people, right?
If you have a .sig
file, keep it as short as possible. Drawings or asterisk boxes on a .sig
look nice and quotes can be fun, but they take up space. Please make a real
effort to keep your .sig files to four lines or less, including all addresses,
quotes, and ascii art.
Emphasis: If you see
a word with asterisks around it like *this*, it is meant for emphasis - kind
of like italics. If you see a word with underlines on either side of it
like _this_, it indicates the whole word should be underlined. Ah, the creative
ways people get around the limitations of the 'net... <g>
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions document. Many lists keep a FAQ for the list, the subject, or both. We don't have one yet but there is the start of one on the TBAA web page. It's a good place for newbies to start, so they aren't asking questions that have been answered dozens of times on the list.
FWIW: for what it's worth
MiG: Monica is Gorgeous; acronyms used by some fans to identify themselves as fans of Roma Downey/Monica.
PL: Promised Land, TBAA's spin-off.
TBAA: Touched By An Angel (in case you missed it!) ;-}
IMHO: In my humble opinion. This one's used a lot in stating opinions that might otherwise sound haughty or stuck up. Sometimes people acknowledge a certain amount of pride in their knowledge or that they are not being humble by saying 'in my not so humble opinion' or IMNSHO. (this is often followed with a grin to show they are teasing, though!) Some people simply use IMO (in my opinion).
J/AIA: John/Andrew is Adorable; acronyms used by some fans to identify themselves as fans of John Dye and/or Andrew.
LOL: Laughing out loud. Usually, this one's used in reaction to something someone said.
OTOH: on the other hand
ROTFL: Rolling on the floor laughing. There are a lot of longer acronyms that start with these letters that basically mean the same thing but have cute little additions, like ROTFLSHIAKTC - Rolling on the floor laughing so hard I actually kissed the carpet...
TIG or TISE: Tess is Great or Tess Is Something Else; acronyms used by some fans to identify themselves as fans of Della Reese/Tess.
TPTB: the powers that be, usually used to refer to people with control over the show, like network executives or the producers.
YKYBWTMTBAAW: You know you've been watching too much "Touched by an Angel" when... These kinds of posts can be a lot of fun, and very humorous. If you're on lists for other shows you can substitute the acronym for that show in place of the TBAA in this one...
YMMV: your mileage may vary (this is another way of saying "You many not agree with this; it's just my opinion")
Androolers Fans who, well, *really* like to watch John Dye/Andrew.
Chain Letters Letters (whether sent to you via snail mail or e-mail) that instruct you to forward them to a certain number of people (or simply to lots of other people). If these letters involve any sort of moneymaking scheme, they are illegal. For more information on that, check with the FTC. There are many chain letters that don't deal with money at all, however they will very likely be against the policy of your internet service provider and you can lose your internet account for forwarding them. Most of these will be appeals for your help for someone with a health problem or other trouble. Some will be cute jokes, art, urban legends or inspirational messages. Many cute e-mails and jokes get forwarded around from friend to friend, but I recommend you do NOT forward anything that *says* to send it to everyone you know, or to ten people, or anything like that. If you wish to forward a message you receive that has such a directive in it, *remove* that sentence before forwarding it. Don't forward such messages to large mailing lists, either, as the chances of members having seen your message before are pretty high on such lists. By the 20th copy of the same message that you recieve, you tend to get a bit cranky about it.
Flaming: Sending or posting rude, insulting or offensive e-mail to a person or list. (See the list rules for more on this subject.) Flaming actors or other people not subscribed to the list is still flaming. There's a fine line between a negative opinion and a flame. It's often a great help to remember to express things as your opinion, and not as absolutes.
Kiwis Natives of New Zealand (or occasionally a kind of bird, or a type of fruit). Some list members fall into this category for real, others are 'honorary' Kiwis.
Lurkers: People who read a list but almost never post. It's like they're 'lurking in the shadows'. Most lists have lots of them; in fact, I've been one on lots of lists myself. :)
Moniacs A name for the *really* enthusiastic Monica fans.
Newbies: People who are new, either to the list or the show or to the internet in general. This is not a demeaning term in any way, it is a fact of life. If you are a newbie, use the term to explain to people why you don't know all the things everyone else seems to. :-)
Raphaelites: Fans of Alexis Cruz/Raphael.
Spamming: Sending a lot of mail (often junk-mail) to someone so that you fill up their mailbox. Also, sending the same junk mail post to many, many, many people, whether they want it or not.
SPOILERS: This refers to 'spoiling' someone's viewing of an episode by telling them what will happen before it airs. If you have an inside source for information on a future show - a friend in the crew, an article in a mazagine, or a 'wild feed' from your satellite dish, for example - put the word 'Spoilers' in the subject line to warn those readers who are trying to avoid knowing about an episode in advance. Spoiler warnings are not necessary after an episode has begun airing on the eastern coast of the US on this list, which usually means after Sunday, 8 pm EST. If you are in another time zone and don't want to be 'spoiled', I suggest you defer reading your listmail until after the episode airs in your time zone on Sunday. Previews for future episodes shown as part of the regular broadcast need not be spoiler-protected.
WAR: Not what you might expect. It's a game, and it's not about differences or hatred or anything one generally associates with the word 'war'. It's where listmembers play with one another through fictitious posts. In the stories, 'attacks' might happen, but they're generally nothing more sinister than a pillow fight or catapulted chocolate pudding or some other prank, and every attack is a sincere form of affection. Wars may not be started on TBAAngel without gaining prior approval of the listowner, however, since they generate a lot of mail and we don't want to drown out the other discussion.
Jennie, Listowner, TBAAngel Mailing List
TBAAngel-owner at yahoogroups dot com
Go back to The TBAAngel Webpage