E-mail courtesies

Every so often I receive suggestions for topics to discuss in this column. This month I am responding to several members who have written to me after they have received e-mail messages they did not like. There are a variety of reasons. The concerns range over questions of manners, style, content, volume, frequency and so on.

I also receive reminders that not all of our members know how to use the Internet. For those who have never used a computer for e-mail, the next section is for you. The remainder of this column is about the do's and don'ts of e-mail.

IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED E-MAIL.   Using the Internet has become much less complicated. Manufacturers of hardware and writers of software, together with the business acumen of service providers, have combined to provide us with systems that are fairly simple to use. The cost of a personal computer (PC) is about the same as the cost of a high-quality television set, and the cost of Internet access is often comparable to the cost of telephone service.

In many areas, one can purchase a computer from a retailer with the Internet access software fully installed. Since PC sales are so competitive, you can often persuade the store manager to set up your access software if you have arranged for your Internet access ahead of time. Getting started using e-mail (electronic mail) becomes a matter of taking your PC home, connecting the parts as the person in the store showed you, connecting to the power outlet and the phone line, turning on the power, watching the various program icons (little pictures you click on to activate the program) appear on the screen, and using the mouse to click on the e-mail program icon. Modern e-mail programs are very straightforward to use. If you have never used one, your friendly sales person at the store where you buy your computer will show you how (if not -- buy where they will!).

In some ways, using a browser to access the Web is even easier than accessing e-mail. E-mail is (mostly) the sending and receiving of messages between people, whereas Web browsing is looking up information that someone has published. Putting it another way, e-mail is an alternative to (in some ways a blend of) the telephone or postal service, whereas Web browsing is an alternative to browsing in a library.

FOR EVERYONE.   For all e-mail users -- novice, expert, or in between -- there are a number of ways we can make the use of e-mail more friendly, and more effective in building a professional image for ourselves.

SPELLING.   Just because it's e-mail, it is not an excuse to ignore the common courtesy of correcting obvious mistakes in spelling. Your e-mail message is a written document and may be printed or forwarded to someone else.

CAPITALS.   Do not leave the "Caps Lock" setting on your keyboard on. The use of CAPITALS in e-mail is called SHOUTING and is considered impolite. Why? Because single-spaced, capitalized text on a screen looks awful -- end of story.

HELLO AND GOODBYE.   It is good manners to introduce yourself when you send someone a letter or use the telephone. You usually begin by mentioning your recipient's name. Depending on how well or in what way you know the person, you use the appropriate degree of formality or informality. You also conclude a letter with your own name, again using the appropriate formality. It is surprising how many e-mail senders ignore these two parts of the message.

There is a reason why some claim this is unnecessary. Your e- mail message is embedded in a file that contains a header before the message. This header contains the "To," "From," "CC," and "Date" information along with a whole lot of other information that, most of the time, you do not need nor want to see. Some e-mail software packages strip off these headers or parts of them prior to displaying your message. In any event, the header is for the computer network that processes your message, not for the reader.

Many people use a so-called signature file that is automatically appended to the end of the message. This is the equivalent of letterhead or a business card. It is not a friendly way to end your message. (Most e-mail packages have a feature that helps you create this so-called signature file when you begin using that package. You normally only change it when something like your phone number changes.)

JUNK MAIL.   The Internet is not a medium for junk mail. Do not send unsolicited advertising. Most Internet access providers will deny access to the Internet if there are significant abuses to the stated Internet policy of not permitting unsolicited commercial messages. Web pages may and do contain advertising but you -- the user -- choose to view those pages. You can elect to join various electronic services -- for example, join mailing lists or log on to commercial servers -- but the Internet philosophy is that the receiver chooses, not the sender! The Internet Society governs the use of the Internet. Its various task forces, committees, etc., set the rules of conduct, control the assigning of Internet addresses, and so on. If you are interested, you can view their home page at "www.isoc.org". If you receive junk mail, complain strongly to your service provider.

THE DREADED CC.   Who to CC to? It is so easy to include multiple CCs on original messages you send or to reply to all the CCs on the original message you received. But who really needs a copy? And if you received a CC for information, do you need to respond? Make sure there is a good reason to reply. By the way, most e-mail packages have a way for you to reply to the sender or to the sender and all of the CCs. Make sure you understand which is which.

GROUP ALIASES.   If you want to send messages to several people you can create group aliases in most e-mail packages. These are your personal group aliases, and when you send to the group alias, your message is sent to all of the addresses that you included in the group alias when you created it. All of these addresses are listed in the header file. If you included a large number of addresses, then the header file may be much longer than your message. It is very annoying to receive a message that follows several screens full of addresses. There are two alternatives. Ask your service provider to create a system group alias for you -- that way each person gets their own message without all of the recipients being listed. The second alternative is to ask your service provider to enable you to use a mailing list managing program such as Majordomo. The advantage of the second alternative is that you can edit the mailing list yourself without waiting for the service provider to respond to your request (once it has been set up). Please see the July '96 issue of The Institute for more information on e-mail aliases.

REPLYING TO MAILING LISTS.   If you subscribe to a mailing list and receive messages, you need to be aware that you may have a choice as to whether you reply to the sender of the message or all of the recipients. Within IEEE, we have developed a convention to differentiate between so-called mailing lists and so-called discussion groups. Please see the April '96 and May '96 issues of The Institute for more information on each of these. The key distinction is that all replies in a discussion group always go to everyone in the group, whereas replies only go to the owner of a mailing list. Both of these can be managed using Majordomo. Some folks set up mailing lists without using this distinction. In my view, discussion groups (those lists where replies go to everyone) should only be used when people become part of the group by subscribing and have the option to unsubscribe. However, if you are on one of these lists -- find out how to reply responsibly.

KEEP IT SHORT.   E-mail messages are best kept short -- half a screen of text is ideal. Post large quantities of information such as conference announcements on Web sites or FTP sites, or as auto-retrievable text files, and send a short message describing what is available and where it can be obtained. For conferences, include the name, sponsor, location and date, and put everything else in a set of files.

That's all for now -- a few explanations and some thoughts on how we should be using e-mail as members of a professional community. Your thoughts and suggestions will be most welcome.