Netiquette

[J Patrick Draine]

Dear List:
One of us recently wrote:

<We need more frank and to-the-point answers to questions and less posturing
<and demeaning quips.

Unfortunately, one writer's "frank" may be read by others as "demeaning quips".

A couple weeks ago, driving between jobs I was listening to Ray Suarez's
NPR interview show. The subject was online education. A caller complained
that his students seemed to show poorer comprehension of materials accessed
over the web, in comparison with in hand "paper" articles and books. The
"expert" panelists replied that research has been carried out proving that
this is the case.
In the case of email, when we write as casually as we
speak, mild "wit" or sarcasm can easily be read as insult. If the two
individuals were standing in the same room, the listener would pick up on
various aspects of body language that no insult was intended.

I'm dropping my tax returns (and 1999 estimated payments) in the mail in a
few minutes, so I'm feeling a major stress reduction; I hope you all are
too.

As a T-shirt worn by a colorful murderer in an Elmore Leonard novel read,
"It's nice to be nice!"

Yours,

Patrick