Let's collect definitions for Netiquette here (remember to indicate the source clearly in all cases, and to sign your contributions). Enjoy!

Gladys

Netiquette

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Netiquette (neologism, a portmanteau formed from "Internet etiquette") is a catch-all term for the conventions of politeness recognised on Usenet, in mailing lists, and on other electronic forums such as internet message boards. These conventions address group phenomena (such as flaming) with changes in personal behaviour, such as not posting in all uppercase, not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups, refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups and not top-posting. RFC 1855 is a fairly lengthy and comprehensive set of such conventions.

Susana

Netiquette

From The Macquarie Concise Dictionary, 1998, Third Edition (online version here)

Netiquette.n. Computers. The code of good manners which has evolved for users of the Internet.

Cecilia

Netiquette

What is Netiquette? Simply stated, it's network etiquette -- that is, the etiquette of cyberspace. And "etiquette" means "the forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required in social or official life." In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online.

When you enter any new culture -- and cyberspace has its own culture -- you're liable to commit a few social blunders. You might offend people without meaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offense when it's not intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forget that you're interacting with other real people -- not just ASCII characters on a screen, but live human characters.

So, partly as a result of forgetting that people online are still real, and partly because they don't know the conventions, well-meaning cybernauts, especially new ones, make all kinds of mistakes.

The book Netiquette has a dual purpose: to help net newbies minimize their mistakes, and to help experienced cyberspace travelers help the newbies. The premise of the book is that most people would rather make friends than enemies, and that if you follow a few basic rules, you're less likely to make the kind of mistakes that will prevent you from making friends.

From Netiquette Home Page

Maryte

From what I've read so far, I came to this definition: Netiquette is the assemblage of rules I have to follow if I want to survive in the Net.

Júlia