The basic principles of netiquette are simple Internet-specific elaborations of the Golden Rule:

• Do not do anything to other Net users that you would not like done to you.
   
• Do not publicly post e-mail another person has sent you unless the sender gives his or her permission.
   
• Do not send your messages to inappropriate discussion groups--especially if you are selling something and you post your pitch to all 14,000 groups on the Net, a practice known as "spamming".
   
• Never type your messages IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS--doing so is the Net equivalent of shouting, and it is enormously annoying to your readers.
   
• Do not engage in "flaming" or "flame wars" (exchanges of hate-filled e-mail or discussion group messages).
   
• Do not waste Net resources:  for example, do not copy a file from a computer in Japan when the same file can be found closer to home, or do not simply quote what someone else has said in a discussion group and then just add" I agree" to the end of your message.
   
• In short, do not do anything that your fellow Net users might regard as annoying or destructive. The Internet, for all its global reach, is remarkable like a small town in may respects, and those millions of people out there are your neighbors. Be a good neighbor!