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Netiquette

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The Net is a bustling place which must of necessity be largely self-policed. Thus, there are certain commonly understood rules of "Net Etiquette" or "Netiquette" that users of the Internet and WWW should adhere to. Probably nowhere on the Net is this more important than in the Newsgroups, where wildly divergent opinions and different points of view abound.

Netiquette in Newsgroups

On the one hand, a modicum of etiquette is required to allow newgroups to function efficiently, without sinking into unrestrained namecalling. On the other hand, there are issues of sheer volume that dictate frugal posting and replies. Finally, there are issues of censorship and access control that are acute in certain of the newgroup hierarchies (particularly some of the alt. hierarchies) where young children may be accessing the net. In this section we address the first two issues and in the final section we address the issue of access control.

Thou Shalt Know Thy FAQ

Perhaps the most important rule of using newsgroups is to "look before you leap". It is advisable to monitor a newsgroup for a while before you begin to post to it, to see what kind of material is posted there, to see how tolerant those that frequent the newsgroup are of divergent opinion, and to learn where the FAQ is for the newsgroup.

The FAQ stands for the "Frequently Asked Questions." Most newsgroups post their most frequently asked questions, along with answers, in an FAQ accessible somewhere on the Internet (usually at an FTP or HTTP site). For example, see these links for lists of newsgroups FAQs.

It is important to locate the FAQ for a newsgroup and read it before beginning to post questions to the group for two reasons. First, it is usually a treasure-trove of information about the subject matter of the newgroup. In many instances, the most information-filled documents available on the Internet are FAQs. Secondly, many users of newsgroups are highly intolerant of users who ask questions or post information that suggests they have not read the FAQs, and let them know quickly of their unhappiness in email and postings to the newgroups.

It is expected that FAQ questions, having already been answered and placed in an easily accessible archive, will not be asked again within the newsgroup. Thus, STUDY THE FAQ BEFORE POSTING QUESTIONS TO THE NEWSGROUP - your question may have already been answered, many times over; asking it again will not get you off on the right foot in the newsgroup.

Forsake Posting to Inappropriate Groups, Lest Thou be Flamed

Another action that can bring swift retribution from members of a newsgroup is to post information inappropriate to the newsgroup. For example, if you post an ad for your old Macintosh SE in the newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html (which is devoted to authoring html documents and frequented by some rather nice people and also by some highly intolerant and opinionated people), you should just lay low for a few days because you will be bashed mightily--and rightfully so in this case--by email and postings from irate members of the newsgroup. Such email attacks are called "Flaming," and are a common punishment for those who violate newsgroup etiquette.

Thou Verily, Verily Had Better not Spam the Net

Particularly reprehensible to denizens of newsgroups is the practice of blanket-posting something to every newsgroup around, whether appropriate or not. For example, the posting to all Usenet newsgroups of an advertisement promoting a commercial product or service falls into this category. Such postings are called "Spamming," and those judged guilty of spamming the net may be flamed so badly that their computer systems become unusable for a period because of the volume of email sent in protest.

Often, material being posted is appropriate for several newsgroups, and it is quite acceptable to post to multiple groups in that case. However, DO NOT POST TO GROUPS THAT ARE NOT INTERESTED; post only to those groups clearly related to the subject matter of your message.

Censorship and Access

Issues of censorship and access control are of direct relevance to K-12 education because amidst the material available on the Internet that is of enormous educational potential, there is also material (often in certain Newsgroups) that even the hardiest civil libertarian would probably agree is not appropriate for small children - for example, graphical depiction of child pornography, vicious racism from bigots of various stripes, and detailed instructions on how to build bombs from some extremely paranoid people are all there. In some cases this material can raise questions that go beyond those of appropriateness and taste: its distribution and ownership may also be deemed illegal, particularly within certain jurisdictions. For example, possession of child pornography is likely to be illegal as well as reprehensible.

In most cases this material is also readily available from non-Internet sources (your local Adult Bookstore, for example), but its availability on the Net is a particularly sensitive issue because it is harder to monitor the age of persons accessing material on the Net than to check the age of patrons at the adult bookstore (and because people tend to be more comfortable with the devil they know than with a newfangled one in technical garb).

Classroom Liability

Teachers using the Internet in class should be aware of these potential problems. It is advisable to obtain consent forms from parents emphasizing that while all efforts will be directed toward seeing that children access appropriate material, common sense dictates that no monitoring system is foolproof, and in the final analysis students must also assume responsibility for accessing only appropriate material.

Possible Software Solutions

There are partial software solutions to help with some of these problems in the K-12 environment. These software approaches to the problem tend to fall into two general classes:

1. Solutions that block net access to certain addresses deemed to contain objectionable material.

2. Solutions that block access based on the appearance of certain words or phrases in the data being downloaded.

We can see immediately that neither of these approaches is foolproof: one can never know all addresses that might contain objectionable material, and monitoring based on the occurrence of certain words or phrases might easily screen out daily newspapers or even the Bible.

Examples and discussions of these issues, and child safety in general on the Internet, may be found in the section on Internet Safety.