In Newsgroups and Lists

• If you want to reply to a particular item or posting, but your comments would not be of general interest to all participants, send your comments directly to the submitter of the item in question via email.
   
• Always read the articles in a mailing list or newsgroup before posting. Your comments or questions may have already been discussed at great length in one of the many thread conversations on a specific topic.
   
• Be polite: If you asked a question and received responses, send a thank you.
   
• It is all right to disagree with the comments of others, but do not launch personal, abusive attacks, known as flaming. Avoid controversy by making sure that you select and post your articles to the appropriate group. Always select newsgroups and post comments which are relevant to the topics under discussion.
   
• Do not automatically append the full text of the article you are responding to in your message. This habit leads to excessively long articles. Edit the original and include only relevant portions in your text. You can denote lines taken from the original by using > at the beginning of each line.
   
• When replying to a posting, always paraphrase or include a quote as mentioned above, explaining to what and to whom you are responding. Always make reference to the thread you are responding to in the subject area of your message.
   
• The following abbreviations may help you avoid causing intended offence.
  
  

  FWIW	For what it's worth
  OTOH	On the other hand
  AFAIK	As far as I know
  IMHO	In my humble opinion