Sociologists say that 70 percent to 90 percent of human communication is conveyed through body language and tone of voice. Only 10 percent to 30 percent is conveyed through words.

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Flaming words Misunderstandings abound on the Internet. The result often is something called a flame war-the Internet equivalent of a shouting match. The heated messages that are flung back and forth in a flame war are called flames. Sending flames is called flaming.

When you encounter a flame war-we hope only as an observer of someone else’s battle-be prepared to witness a cyberspace version of the grade-school playground. No, it’s worse than that because even grade school kids won’t devote as much energy to getting in the last word as some Internet flamers spend.

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The Internet may well trample your feelings if you are sensitive to every perceived wrong. Instead of being quick on the flamethrower trigger, give the benefit of the doubt to your e-mailing friends, colleagues and fellow newsgroup posters by assuming the best and letting most things slide.

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The Bright Side Not seeing the other person with whom you’re communicating has benefits. There are countless excellent relationships on the Internet between people who would never engage each other in person. In cyberspace, bigots can’t be biased. Age and gender barriers don’t exist. Accents don’t impede comprehension. And no one cares what you wear. When you feel that the impersonal realm of cyberspace has cost you the good will of a relationship, think of how many cyber-relationships never would have blossomed F2F (face to face).

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Newsgroups Newsgroups are cyberspace versions of community bulletin boards. Of course the community in this case is global! You can post messages on these bulletin boards and read messages that others have posted. Each newsgroup on the Internet has a designated, primary topic, so you can find groups that discuss topics in which you’re interested, read what people all over the world have to say about these topics, state your own opinion, ask questions and get advice. Netscape refers to newsgroups as “Discussion Groups,” but we’ll use the generic term of newsgroups because that’s the most common term, though sometimes you hear them called the Usenet.

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from http://www.qwest.net/nav4/help/new_to_internet/mail.html