General Rules of Etiquette for Posting on Salus & Sofia

While we imagine that all members of this online community are familiar with online rules of etiquette (or “netiquette,”) we post these general rules as reminders for most and instructions for few. Please remember, above all, that our community, while password protected, is sponsored by Aquinas Institute of Theology. While we encourage exploration of thought, particularly in the fields of theology, health and medicine, please post only those comments and materials that you would consider appropriate for a classroom use on campus. (Remember, individual email accounts and telephones exist as other forms of communication.)

Online communities are a unique method of communication, but remember that online postings do not readily allow us to communicated body language, facial expressions and other non-verbals. So, keep in mind that humor and sarcasm can be misinterpreted. Be aware that your audience may not know you as well as you think they do.

Some materials are never appropriate for posting. Do not forward virus warnings, chain letters, jokes, and the like. Posting pornographic material, discussing illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property violations, and posting advertisements and notices for contests are not allowed. We reserve the right to remove offensive posts without notice.

You can review rules for online etiquette on many university websites. Other resources include:

Also while these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently we reserve the right to take any actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused in any way. We also reserve the right to ban anyone who willfully violates the forum rules.

When posting in forums, refrain from posting meaningless threads, one word (or short) non-sense posts, or the like. Always include a meaningful subject line in email messages and forum postings. It alerts people to the topic of the message and makes reading and responding to messages easier. Avoid typing messages in all caps. Apart from being difficult to read, it's considered to be SHOUTING on the internet. Likewise, do not mumble, i.e., typing in all lower case.

Keep your messages short and to the point. Apart from making messages easier to read, it saves people time (and money if they are paying for internet connection on an hourly basis). Some common abbreviations have developed in order to hasten the communication process (these abbreviations are particularly common in chat rooms or other real time communication.) But don’t get too carried away with the use of obscure abbreviations. It defeats the purpose of trying to keep messages short if the reader needs to consult an acronym dictionary to decipher your meaning.

Don't send size bandwidth--hungry attachments unless it's absolutely necessary.