The rules of good citizenship in cyberspace boil down to being aware and respectful of the human beings who are on the other side of your online exchanges. The nature of the online environment suggests additional dos and don'ts for the good cybercitizen. Jokes don't always cross cultural boundaries with grace. Even within a culturally-similar community, the absence of visual and auditory cues in text based exchanges means that you can't signal your good intentions with body language or tone of voice. Think before you wise-crack.
Few users enjoy warp-speed connections to the Internet .
Make things small if you can. Numerous netiquette guides exist on the Web . Most are geared to interactions via email , listservs and usenet newsgroups, but their core principles apply to the Web as well.