Netiquette: Don't Let Your Career Go Down In Flames

Troubleshooters.Com and T.C Linux Library Present

Email Netiquette:
Don't Let Your Career Go Down In Flames

By Steve Litt

Time was (1996) you could keep your on-line life entirely separate from your career. Those days are gone. Today's email is used to write software, write books, formulate business strategies, hammer out contracts, and just about everything else that was once labeled "collaboration" or "groupware". Any technologist ineffective in the email arena will fall hopelessly behind.

So it never fails to amaze me how some truly gifted technologists deliberately nuke their email presence with flames, personal insults, and off topic posts. In June 1999 I personally witnessed an excellent ~60 member Linux User Group ripped in two by a flame war started and sustained by five, count em five, people. Today, in July 2000, one of the LUG's appears to be dying, and the other has just now regained the membership, success and community involvement of the original. A years worth of progress destroyed by five people whose only priority was to ram their opinion down everyone's throat by outshouting all others.

I've compiled a list of short clips from that flame war that split a LUG. These are inflamitory and in some cases use vulgar language, so please do not click this link if such language offends you, or if you are under 18:

Short clips from the 6/27/1999-7/10/1999 ELUG splitting flame war

Most mailing lists are archived. Almost all of the flames listed in the preceding link can be located, and displayed in full, with an AltaVista search, complete with author's name and email address. Try the lookup yourself, based on the text from the clips.

These flames will hang around forever, like landmines, waiting to be discovered years from now by the authors' business associates. Imagine going to a job interview, only to have the interviewer say "Oh yes, you're the *^%*&^&% that flamed so and so on the such and such mailing list. We look for a higher level of maturity from our employees. Thanks but no thanks".

Flame Avoidance

If it were easy refrain from flaming, there wouldn't be so many flames. Believe me, most flamers are wonderful people in person. I once witnessed a particularly nasty and personal flamewar between two LUG members. Having lived in Venice, California, where insults are settled in ways often requiring hospitalization for one or both parties, I expected a fistfight at the next LUG meeting. The two got together, laughing and joking. Some of the nastiest flamers are the nicest people. But in the end, "but he's nice in person" does little to blunt the career trauma caused by ill-advised emails.

You and I are nice people, but nice people flame unless they affirmatively guard against it. Here's how not to flame...

Never get personal. Never say "you're an idiot", "you're a hypocrit", or even "you're wrong". No matter how true the statement, it's almost guaranteed to generate a heavy handed response that will just get you madder. Instead, say "my experience has been that..." or "you're right, although in the case of (whatever) I've found it helpful to...". Move the focus from people to technology, or whatever (impersonal) subject is being discussed.
Never get sarcastic. Anyone smart enough to receive email is smart enough to recognize sarcasm for the insult it is, but not necessarily smart enough to keep a cool head in his or her response.
Never get emotional in a negative way. Even going on a Linux list and saying "BILL GATES IS A CROOK WHO SHOULD BE IMPRISONED FOR LIFE" could generate an angry reply from someone who doesn't like non-technical noise, which in turn could be countered by a counterresponse from someone completely different, stating that anyone who doesn't believe gates is a crook is a total idiot...
Never threaten anyone on mailing lists. Getting shot can sidetrack your career. So can getting sued.
Never use all caps for any more than a few words. Doing so enrages a large portion of the online population, risking a flame war.
Never send an email when you're angry. It's almost certain to emphasize anger over reason, leading to an even more irrational response.
Always count to 10 before sending an email you think might be negative. Chances are you'll rethink it into something less inflammatory.
Always remember that if someone's posting inappropriate material, chances are others are offended also, and it's likely that suggestions to the list moderator can get the inappropriate posts, or their posters, banned.
Do not use HTML email or fonts unless you're absolutely sure all recipients can handle it and like it. People using text only email clients can get pretty riled at the inconvenience of HTML email, and they might just flame you. Even if you don't flame them back, someone else might come to your defense with a personal insult...
Never attach graphic files or other large files to your email, unless all recipients have requested it. Imagine the response of someone on a 28.8 modem after receiving a couple megabytes worth of graphic files. If you want to show off pictures, put them on a web site and email the URL so those who want to see them can do so at their leisure.

The preceding can pretty much prevent flame wars. But there are many smaller issues that should be remembered:

When emailing, remember that many recipients receive hundreds of emails a day. If yours requires any extra handling it will be ignored or worse.
Unsolicited attachments, no matter how small, are usually a bad idea. They require extra work to be viewed by the recipient.
Do not email any kind of executable file or macro. Such virus transmitters are considered extremely bad form.
Don't go on a mailing list and request that answers be emailed specifically to you. If you don't have time to check the mailing list, you can be sure the people doing the answering don't have time to educate one person at a time.
Do not criticize those on a mailing list for not answering your question the last time. Instead, evaluate your last message to ascertain why it didn't merit an answer.
Always use a smile character :-) when kidding around. Remember the recipient can't see you smiling when you type it, and might wrongly construe your kidding as a serious insult.

Doing Business Through Email

Next time you're in the bookstore, check out Samba Unleashed. Then ponder the fact that over 90% of the communication leading to the creation of that book was done via email. Authors were found and recruited, contracts were negociated, chapters and graphics were submitted, editor queries were sent and returned via email. Email was used to ask and answer questions on writing style and technical details.

For those who know how to use it, email is an ideal way of doing business. Unlike the phone, it doesn't interrupt. Unlike a voicemail message, it's electronically searchable and takes up little space. It's small enough to make it practical to keep it forever. Unlike snailmail it's fast, and it's immediately storable in the world's most efficient file cabinet, the hard disk.

The very sparseness of email makes it effective for those knowing its use. Without fonts, text attibutes and pictures you can get right down to the task of writing. No more trying to make yourself "look like a big corporation". Everyone, from the Fortune 500 honcho down to the guy who cleans the floors in the 5 man business, uses text email. Oh sure, a few people use all sorts of fonts and attributes. But these tend to be spammers. Or raw newbies trying to impress with decorative junk. But those of us needing fast and efficient communication for our livelihood use primarily text email. And we always will. Because text email is much faster than dictating the email so a secretary can format it in pretty html.

Email enables the verbally challenged to finally make the money they deserve. Take me for example. Verbally, I'm not particularly "quick on the uptake". After every discussion, I think of 10 "I should have said"s. Invariably I'm left behind. I don't think as fast as others.

But often I think deeper. And more accurately. With email, I can take the time to say it right, and often come out ahead of the fast talkers. There are many, many more like me. With email we're finally experiencing the success we've always been capable of.

Summary

Email can skyrocket your career, or torpedo it. The choice is entirely yours, based on your decision whether to communicate clearly and factually, or to criticize, whine and insult. Email is not private. It never has been, it never will. The recipient can send it to someone else. If sent to a mailing list or some other large entity, it's entirely likely your message will be archived and submitted to search engines. The email you write today very well might still be public knowledge 10 years from now.

Steve Litt
Webmaster: Troubleshooters.Com: http://www.troubleshooters.com/troubleshooters.htm
Content Lead: Troubleshooting Professional Magazine: http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/archive.htm
Webmaster: Linux Library: http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/index.htm

Other Resources: