UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 31, Page 6
May 9, 1996
Proper e-mail etiquette a must

     Many rules of common courtesy and etiquette evolved from
practices that were created to allow members of a community to live
and work cooperatively.
     Recently, a number of individuals on campus broke e-mail rules of
etiquette, bringing the campus e-mail community to a standstill, when
several messages were sent to multiple class mailing lists, not only
clogging up individual student inboxes but the entire e-mail system.
     "The system tried to deliver each of these junk messages to
thousands of people," Dan Grim, network and system services, said.
"Class mailing lists were designed to assist faculty with their
communication with students and should not be used for any other
purpose."
     "This junk e-mail was a gross waste of computing resources,"
Susan Allmendinger, systems security and access, said. "E-mail became
unusable, affecting thousands of students and University employees who
rely on the central computer system to do their work. E-mail use is a
privilege, not a right. Sending 'junk mail' or 'chain letters' can
ruin electronic communication for everyone."
     "Like many other network applications, e-mail relies, in part, on
the cooperation of all users," Leila Lyons, user services, said.
     Signs reminding everyone about the proper use of mailing lists
are posted in University computing sites.