Further to my post about email etiquette I thought I’d do a follow-up highlighting some of the poor or bad email etiquette.

* Don’t reply to an email message when angry , as you may regret it later. Once the message has been sent, you will not be able to recover it.

* Don’t keep mail on your server longer than necessary, especially large attachments.

* Don’t copy out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of text such as “I agree”.

* Don’t type in CAPITALS as this is considered to be SHOUTING. This is one of the rudest things you can do.

* Don’t over-use punctuation such as exclamation marks (”!”) as these are meant to be for emphasis. In particular avoid more than one exclamation mark (”!!”), especially if your email is quite formal. Also, over-use of the full-stop (e.g. “….”) can make a message difficult to read.

* Don’t send irrelevant messages, especially to mailing lists or newsgroups.

* Don’t send large attachments without checking with the recipient first.

* Don’t send excessive multiple postings to people who have no interest. This is known as “spamming” and is considered to be ignorant, and may lead to serious trouble with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or IT department.

* Don’t send chain letters or “make money fast” messages. There are several hoaxes about to do with viruses - never pass these on without checking with your IT department first.

* Don’t criticize people’s spelling, it is considered petty. Many people have no way of running a spell check on their messages and will make typos. Not all nationalities spell words in the same way.

* Don’t conduct arguments in public, for example on a mailing list.

* Don’t “flame” people by sending them abusive email messages.

* Don’t make personal remarks about third parties. Email messages can come back to haunt you.

* Don’t send unsuitable email or attachments, especially anything of a sexual nature as they may well be found by a third party later.

* Don’t use an over-elaborate signature on your email message. Never, ever, use scanned images in a signature as these tend to be very large.

* Don’t mark things as urgent if they aren’t, because then when you really do have an urgent message it may not be treated in the way it deserves.

* Don’t post your email address on web sites and other public parts of the Internet unless you want to be deluged with spam.