Netiquette rules, OK! - OPAR L'Orientale Open Archive

Threads in the Complex Fabric of Languagenetiquette guides [see the list in Atifi 2003: 62, note 12], netiquette is a normative andaxiologised system. She extrapolates six categories of rules, each meant to resolve specificproblems which can arise in CMC:• Politeness (in the strict sense) (face management as in Goffman)– manage your interlocutor’s (positive) face– do not encumber/invade another’s space– do not encumber/invade another’s temporal space– measure your words (be careful with emotions and humour)– Basic manners: adapt your behaviour to the local rules.• Cooperation in/for the production of messages (in Gricean terms)– maxim of Relation (be relevant)– maxim of Manner (be brief and clear)• Message contents:– no commercial messages– no messages of too personal a nature– no racist or sexist messages• Identification/ Non-anonymity of writers and addressees– do not hide your identity• Respect of ‘real-life’ laws:– respect copyright• Adaptation to the constraints of the medium:– respect the coding and decoding norms.(my translation/paraphrase)Nabti (2006) neatly summarizes further saying that the set of netiquette ‘conventions’,require of CMC interlocutors «la clarté, la pertinence, la brièveté», and adds the insightthat its role is preventive; it functions to prevent possible misunderstandings or conflicts,compensating for the limits of CMC (loss of paralinguistic and non-verbal clues/anonymity of interlocutors/difficulty of face management when face is imperceptible).As I am arguing, explanations found among style guides are resonant of the Utilitarianand Kantian ethic; clarity, brevity are promulgated not only since they are determinedby or are most efficient in the medium (e.g., to compensate for the ‘dangers’/poverty ofclues in the medium, and thus avert conflict), but also out of showing respect for others– not only in those circumstances, but in general (since they are not unique to CMC,and are found in all the style guides).The golden rule of netiquette, «Do unto others as you would have them do unto you»,as does Kant’s CI, appeals, indeed, to an ethic of reciprocity, of mirroring, one of usingyour own preferences for respect, to imagine those of others (in order to act on this, ifyou want to be good or ‘ethical’). It is a Utilitarian stance, where it is for the good of all,but also one to some degree with a touch of Egoism: show concern, through carefulness,426