The purpose of this thread is to establish etiquette guidelines for the USMS Discussion Forums. Most of the nearly 900 forum members use common etiquette when posting. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Please use this thread to list suggestions for "netiquette guidelines" for posts on the discussion forums.
Hugh Moore
USMS Communications Committee Chair
Ion, I think Tom has done an incredible job of communicating what others perceptions of you via a forum such as can be and given some good advise.
Early on in the old forum you defended yourself and told of your relationships with teamates which is very different than the somewhat hostile ones you encounter in these one way exchanges. I've meet you and agree that you are very different in person than your posts imply.
Part of this I beleive is cultural; I worked for a French company for 5 years, have been to Romania twice and continue to go to Europe once or twice a year, all in all I've had the pleasure to visit over 30 countries around the world.
What I have found is that often times the humor that exisits in many folks with english as a second language (particularly Europeans) is often taken very poorly by Americans who haven't spent much time in Europe or other parts of the world (Aussies and Kiwi's have made sarcasm an art form!).
I'd also say that it goes the other way as well, particulalry when communication is via email, letters of forum boards where a subtle smile that lets the other person know that what was said was "tongue in cheek" is missed, something I've seen you do!
Train Hard, Rest Hard!
Ion, I think Tom has done an incredible job of communicating what others perceptions of you via a forum such as can be and given some good advise.
Early on in the old forum you defended yourself and told of your relationships with teamates which is very different than the somewhat hostile ones you encounter in these one way exchanges. I've meet you and agree that you are very different in person than your posts imply.
Part of this I beleive is cultural; I worked for a French company for 5 years, have been to Romania twice and continue to go to Europe once or twice a year, all in all I've had the pleasure to visit over 30 countries around the world.
What I have found is that often times the humor that exisits in many folks with english as a second language (particularly Europeans) is often taken very poorly by Americans who haven't spent much time in Europe or other parts of the world (Aussies and Kiwi's have made sarcasm an art form!).
I'd also say that it goes the other way as well, particulalry when communication is via email, letters of forum boards where a subtle smile that lets the other person know that what was said was "tongue in cheek" is missed, something I've seen you do!
Train Hard, Rest Hard!
