By Bonny Ibhawoh,
I participate in and contribute to several listserves and online discussion boards where, I am frankly dismayed by the language and tone of the discussion coming from scholars and activists who I would expect to be more civil, thoughtful and considerate in their discussions. The debates sometimes degenerate into banal name-calling and vulgar displays of “pseudo-erudition” — some kind of intellectual power tussle that I find stifling of productive debate. I call this pseudo-erudition because I believe that sophisticated thinking is often subtle and tempered. I see these displays of “pseudo-erudition” even of listservs that are supposedly dedicated to promoting peace and human rights. That is not what I think a cyber-community of scholars and thinkers should be.
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
Excerpted from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. Click on each
rule for elaboration.
* Rule 1: Remember the Humanhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule1.html
* Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real lifehttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule2.html
* Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspacehttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule3.html
* Rule 4: Respect other people’s time and bandwidthhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule4.html
* Rule 5: Make yourself look good onlinehttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule5.html
* Rule 6: Share expert knowledgehttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule6.html
* Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under controlhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule7.html
* Rule 8: Respect other people’s privacyhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule8.html
* Rule 9: Don’t abuse your powerhttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule9.html
* Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people’s mistakeshttp://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule10.html
