Netiquette / The Core Rules of Netiquette

What is Netiquette?

"Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace. In other words,Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly on line.

When you enter any new culture -- and cyberspace has its own culture -- you're liable to commit a few social blunders. You might offend people without meaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offense when it's not intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forget that you're interacting with other real people -- not just ASCII characters on a screen, but live human characters.

So, partly as a result of forgetting that people online are still real, and partly because they don't know the conventions, well-meaning cybernauts, especially new ones, make all kinds of mistakes.

Learn Netiquette basics by reading the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. Shea's "Core Rules"are the classic introduction to the subject and are widely cited in cyberspace.

Browse through the Complete Online Edition and have access to topics such as Business Netiquette, The Art of Flaming, Egregious Violations of Netiquette, and Love & Sex in Cyberspace.

The book Netiquette has a dual purpose: to help net newbies minimize their mistakes, and to help experienced cyberspace travelers help the newbies. The premise of the book is that most people would rather make friends than enemies, and that if you follow a few basic rules, you're less likely to make the kind of mistakes that will prevent you from making friends.

The list of core rules below are excerpted from the book. They are offered here as a set of general guidelines for cyberspace behavior. They won't answer all your Netiquette questions. But they should give you some basic principles to use in solving your own Netiquette dilemmas.

* Remember the Human
* Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
* Know where you are in cyberspace
* Respect other people's time and bandwidth
* Make yourself look good online
* Share expert knowledge
* Help keep flame wars under control
* Respect other people's privacy
* Don't abuse your power
* Be forgiving of other people's mistakes

If you want to read the explanations for each rule , click here:

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Idioms

What are Idioms?

An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a different meaning from the dictionary definitions of the individual words.
An idiom is a natural manner of speaking to a native speaker of a language.

Here you have a few idioms:

A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush:
Having something that is certain is much better than taking a risk for more, because chances are you might lose everything.

A Fool And His Money Are Easily Parted:
It's easy for a foolish person to lose his/her money.

A Leopard Can't Change His Spots:
You cannot change who you are.

A Taste Of Your Own Medicine:
When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others.

An Arm And A Leg:
Very expensive. A large amount of money.

Beating Around The Bush:
Avoiding the main topic. Not speaking directly about the issue.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water:
The family bond is closer than anything else.

Buy A Lemon:
To purchase a vehicle that constantly gives problems or stops running after you drive it away.
Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth:
When someone gives you a gift, don't be ungrateful.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining:
Be optomistic, even difficult times will lead to better days.

Hit The Books:
To study, especially for a test or exam.

Hold Your Horses:
Be patient.

It Takes Two To Tango:
A two person conflict where both people are at fault.

Kick The Bucket:
Die.
Let The Cat Out Of The Bag:
To share a secret that wasn't suppose to be shared.
Visit http://www.idiomsite.com/ and learn many more.
I look forward to reading your comments and your own examples with the idioms learnt today.