They are not always obvious, however, and novices often get themselves into uncomfortable situations by being oblivious to the fact that such conventions exist. For example, Usenet news allows ordinary people to converse directly with the world's leading experts on a vast number of topics. Of course, the Internet is big, and different conventions exist in different parts of it. There are a handful of general conventions that apply to everything from an e-mail message, a message to a Usenet news group, a form entry on a web site, an online chat facility, or a MUD . Most of these relate to the above three rules in a very direct manner.
Online communication tends to be extremely informal in nature.
The Internet grew in part out of academia as a research tool, and researchers are often quite informal. Using different type styles isn't safe in most forms of online communication. Typing something in all capital letters is considered shouting. Capitalization should only be used extremely sparingly for emphasizing particular words or short phrases. A person accessing the Internet from a cell phone usally won't want your WAV or AVI file, no matter how cool it is.