« Back to blog

Common Sense Netiquette

The list on here really emphasizes things that people should already know- Don’t use profanity and respect others. Keep those two in mind and you’re already a step ahead of most people on the web.

I think people tend to take the internet’s nature for granted and they sort of lose all their face to face communication etiquette. Anonymity allows people to leave unhelpful flames. But I think in closed groups where you know each other- like in a school discussion, people tend to be a bit more careful of their words. If you do something unhelpful and offensive in such an environment, chances are someone’s going to call you out on it.

That being said, I think commenting on other people’s work takes some getting used to. You don’t want to offend them and you want to sound helpful. Sometimes I just stare at an empty comment box- wondering if I should force myself to find something to say just to show I read it. But I don’t think that’s really helpful (even if I do it sometimes). Commenting just for the sake of occupying space isn’t the best thing to do when you want to foster a discussion.

So my rule for commenting- if you’re inspired to comment, do it. Those comments are usually the best because inspired thoughts are always unique.If you have nothing to say- that's fine, keep reading until you find something that makes you want to speak up.

Posted March 3, 2010