Like e-mail, itself, the rules of e-mail netiquette are short and to the point.

Because e-mail is enormously popular and the most widely used feature of the Internet, netiquette specific to e-mail communicating has developed. Many of us use e-mail every day. Let’s do it with the proper form and respect for others. Just follow easy e-mail etiquette.

Sending E-mail

Don’t send large amounts of unsolicited data. Extremely large files like uncompressed photos can tie up an e-mail program for a long period of time. If you intend to send someone a large file, contact him first and . If possible, use a compression program like WinZip or Stuffit to compress the file and make it smaller before you send it.

Install a good anti-virus program and update it regularly. When you contract certain viruses, they can take over your computer and send unsolicited e-mail to everyone in your address book. This can not only be inconsiderate, it can also be embarrassing. Just ask the minister who had a virus e-mail the address of a porn site to each of his parishioners.

Jokes can be fun, but not everyone has the time, energy, or sense of humor to enjoy them. Make sure your recipients are interested before you use e-mail to send on those funnies.

In e-mail, always create a subject line. All mail should have a subject heading that reflects the content of the message. This will help the recipient organize and prioritize the messages.

Hoaxes and chain letters are a waste of everyone’s time, energy and bandwidth. Read my story on hoaxes in the Sandy’s Classroom section of the Compu-KISS Web site (www.compukiss.com) to find out how to tell if you’ve been hoaxed, and be sure you don’t use e-mail to spread these time-wasters.

Respect others’ privacy. If you send an e-mail to multiple people, don’t list the names of your friends for everyone to see. Almost every e-mail program has a blind carbon copy option that you can use to hide the names and addresses of the recipients. Look in the help file of your e-mail program to learn how to use it.

There is always the possibility that your e-mail went astray, was delivered to the wrong address, or was inadvertently deleted by the recipient. If it is important, ask for a response and/or check to make sure your e-mail has been received.

Replying To E-mail

Put your response at the top of the e-mail. The party who sent you the message is most interested in seeing your response, so putting it at the top of the message rather than the bottom is much more polite.

When replying, include enough of the original e-mail message to be understood but no more. It is extremely poor netiquette to reply to a message by including all the previous message or messages, especially if they are long. Most e-mail programs allow you to delete as much of the irrelevant material as you would like.

Check e-mail daily. Once you start using e-mail, others will assume you pick up your messages regularly.

Remember, e-mail is an informal mode of communication, but how you communicate reflects on you. You can be fast, you can be brief, you can be concise, but don’t forget to be considerate and follow these easy-to-remember points of netiquette.