This is the second installment of our social media for flow artists series, or life hacks. Today we are discussing an underdiscussed topic in our community: netiquette. Netiquette can be understood as good online manners. While our community tends to push the boundaries and limits of physics and convention, there are still some unsaid but good guidelines to help you maintain your respect and quality within our niche world. This post heavily focuses on facebook as it is where the most discussion and members of our community engage with one another.
- Don’t be a spammer. This is rule number 1. Spam is spam and no one likes it. Even if your reach is increased, your credibility goes down.If posting to groups, make sure that the content is relevant to the group and engage with the members there. If you think you are being spammy, then don’t do it.
- Don’t post to more than 3 groups in ten seconds or even ten minutes. Please wait. There are many members a part of many groups. Those that are cross-listed might now view your posts as spam (see #1).
- Provide relevant discussion in groups, and read group rules. They exist to the right on the group page.
- It is a good idea to have both a professional page and a personal profile. Please don’t use a profile for an organization. This is confusing and decreases your visibility.
- Keep your feelings in check and remember this nice little rule: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
- Respect others’ opinions. Discussion is good and people’s opinions will differ from yours. Diversity is a good thing! It leads to progress and expansion.
- If you have a problem with a business or organization, contact the people behind it in a closed forum. If the issue isn’t resolved, then it might be ok to make public statements. Discretion is advised.
- Promote others within the community. Do this by linking to their page or website. We are stronger together.
- If you have something meaningful to say, say it, but remember all the other rules.
- Don’t be a spammer.
There are obviously many things missed here, so please, if you have something to add, do!