Much has been said on the topic of "netiquette" in STF: The code of social niceties that we observe while online. The GWF has its own "netiquette" of sorts, and here's a quick summary.

Keep it clean
I can't use the same excuse I used on Prodigy -- "this is a family online service" -- but the concept still holds. STF is, for the most part, a family environment. Let's keep our PG rating, eh? <g>

Signatures
Although it is true that our names are posted at the top of each message via the automatic action of the WeBB software, it doesn't hurt to add the name again at the bottom. It is a common courtesy, especially after long messages where it would take unnecessary time and energy to scroll up to the top of the page.

Quoting
In at least 80% of the messages on the WeBB (my guess), no quoting is necessary at all. In a further 19.9% (again, my guess), only a few lines of the quoted message are necessary. Overquoting gains a few seconds on the part of the writer but steals many more from the readers who must search through a sea of colons bracketing text they read last week to find the two sentences of original thought. For most messages, the 80% that don't need quoting, it would serve just as easily to summarize the earlier message in a sentence. Instead of

": Posted on Stardate 98040.3 at 0300 hours by Fred Foobar
": Captain Foobar says to the Romulan, "Hey, I like you, man, you're pretty neat ... not!"
": Foobar then turns to Security Chief Widget and says, "Fire!"
"
"Firing Phasers.
"--Wally Widget,"

"Okay, Captain, firing phasers at the Romulan!
"--Wally Widget."

--Cdre. Mike Ballway
Your Friendly Local FComm
fcomm-2@star-fleet.com

This page is maintained for GWF Fleet Ops by Mike Ballway.