- Your bank does NOT need your help in updating its security system or certificates.
- The IRS, UPS and the Post Office do NOT send unsolicited invoices, receipts, refund or delivery notices by E-Mail
- DON'T Forward Chain Letters
- Your E-Mail address was NOT chosen to win the Swiss (or any other) Lottery.
- No dying child wants your business cards, get well cards and the
like. This child died many years ago,and the hospitals, clinics are
tired of the mail. (Actually this one had some merit many years
ago, but seems to resurface every six months or so.)
- The FCC and/or Postal Service is NOT planning to add a tax on
E-mail. They don't have the authority!
- Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Sony, Sega, Microsoft and the like WILL
NOT PAY YOU, give you a camcorder, Disneyland tickets, iPhones, iPods
or whatever for forwarding an E-Mail message.
- Nobody has awakened in a bathtub of ice after someone stole their
kidney.
- If it says "Send This to Everyone You Know," DON'T!
- No matter HOW many times you forward an E-Mail, you will NOT
see a video, something nifty, learn a secret or get any reward.
- NO ONE IN NIGERIA Will Deposit ANY Money Into Your Account!
- You have NOT been 'Specially Selected!'
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The Internet is NOT Rocket
Science!
OOPS, I guess it really is.....or Was!
Well, not any more anyway. Today, anybody with a credit card (or the
ability to crack one) or a free ISP can either impress or aggravate millions of innocent people with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks.
Trust me, you will learn to use the tools. All the acronyms
and techno-babble that confuse you today, will eventually become
miraculously clear. Of course, they will be replaced by a whole new set
of confusing "stuff" in a few months.
The first thing that you must NOT do with the Internet, is be
afraid of it. People have been making this sound complicated for years,
and it used to be. It still is if you want a job as an Internet Consultant,
Web Developer or other "techie" type.
If, however, all you want to do is use computers and the Net as the
tools that they should be, PLEASE, don't get wrapped up in the
bits, bytes and techno-babble.
You don't have to know how to rebuild a transmission to drive your car.
It does help if you know a few things; check the oil, change a tire and
maybe jump-start the engine. The days when you had to be a mechanic to
drive are over. The days when you had to have a pocket protector full
of little screwdrivers and brightly colored pencils in order to compute
are also over. Today, you just jump in, hang on, and enjoy the ride.
Get yourself a "Net Buddy." Surely you don't think that you
are the only one that's learning this stuff?
Find someone at your own skill level, and try things with them. Set
up a chat session play with E-Mail attachments, the Internet Phone, and
experiment with other stuff before you inflict it on an unsuspecting
Net. Set up a Skype account and learn together.
There is a wonderful cartoon which has been circulating around the Net
since well before the Web. It shows a dog, sitting at the keyboard of
a computer, and captioned, "On the Internet, No One Knows You're
a Dog!".
The joy of that, is it's true! Until you post a public message
or participate in some sort of chat or conference, no one cares. Yes,
web servers can keep some pretty detailed information about you; when
you hit the site, what you did while there, what your browser is, what
your IP address is and maybe even your E-mail address. Just about anything
else, you have to volunteer by answering a question on-line.
So far, about the worst that will happen to you is that you will get
on a few junk E-Mail lists, but you'll learn to deal with that. (It's
called the delete key-Later on you can learn about Mail Filters and Kill
Files.)
The Most Important Thing, is not how you get to the Net, what you use
to get there, or what you get from the Net, it's what you leave behind
that tends to live forever.
There are a few core rules that will help you get off to a good start
as a new net citizen.
In a nutshell, and in no particular order...
Social Networks, Blogs, Bulletin Boards, Forums, News groups, etc.
- Don't Participate in Flame Wars!
- Please look for and read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for
any news group or Discussion Board/Blog before you post messages there. The process of
locating and reading a few FAQ's is a good learning excursion
out on the Net. Just don't get intimidated.
- Lurk Before You Leap. Please follow at least 20, preferably more
messages on a group before posting your own.
- If an online community has place reserved for introductions, introduce yourself there once you begin to feel comfortable with the 'landscape.'
- Read ALL messages in a thread before you add your own comment. What you have to say may have already been covered..
E-Mail
- Learn To Use Distribution Lists or send Blind Carbon Copies.
Should you decide something you received is so priceless that you must forward
it, DON'T include your entire address list in the TO: field. I have no interest in the collected E-Mail addresses of everyone you know, but the spammers do.
- Please don't post or respond to any of the "Make Money Fast" postings.
Most are illegal, and the best that they do is suck up disk space needed
by real stuff.
- Respect other people's privacy. If someone sends you E-mail that
says, "Now that mother's out of jail, John's whipped his drug
problem, and I haven't had a drink in almost a week, I might be able
to stop cheating on my husband.", please don't forward that
E-Mail to a blog or post it on FaceBook™ or anywhere else.
- On a related subject, remember -- E-Mail is not private. It's
a lot like a postcard. It is highly unlikely that anyone but the recipient
will ever read it -- but it is possible.
- Don't say anything in E-mail that you wouldn't want your
grandmother to read.
- The Internet Never Forgets!
- Please don't tell anybody about the "Good Times Virus" if
you get an E-mail about it. Just reply to the well meaning person who
sent you the E-Mail and let them know it's been a "joke" floating
around the Net for years.
- Use the subject field!
The subject field is a useful option that is often neglected.
The biggest problem in my experience is ineffective or improper use
of the Subject field. It's disturbing how many people send e-mails
with no subject or the wrong subject, particularly in replies. If you
change the topic of an E-Mail in the reply, Please Change the Subject
Line To Match!
Inappropriate subjects also make it difficult to file, forward, or
provide meaningful responses.
- When sending photos, please re-size them down to 800 x 600 pixels or so before attaching them to an E-Mail. It saves the receiver time, disk space and bandwidth.
- When responding to E-Mail, don't quote the entire original message
in your reply. Only quote the relevant parts, and only to the extent
that they will help orient the recipient on your reply.
- All E-Mail should end with a short, descriptive signature line.
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