On-line etiquette is a recurring topic on most on-line mailing lists and news groups. Although some baseline standards of behavior are reasonably well-established in the on-line community, these are not universally understood and are subject to interpretation. The following guidelines are an attempt to summarize what the author believes to be a consensus of Savoynet members, though it should be understood that there is probably some disagreement about the interpretation, if not the content.

1. Stay on-topic. The subject of Gilbert & Sullivan is amazingly broad and encompasses many cognate subjects. Posts can be humorous, light and entertaining; or, they may be deep, serious and scholarly. But, whatever else they may be, each posting should have a bearing, however tenuous, on the subject of G&S.

2. Keep quoted material to a minimum. You can generally assume that subscribers have read earlier posts. Therefore, you need not quote extensively in your reply. Do so only as much as needed to establish the context for what you want to say. At the very least, edit out saluation and signature lines. Often, you can get along without quoting at all.

3. Eschew frivolous posts. A frivolous post is one which says little more than "I agree," "Me too," or "Wow!" Remember, your post is going to hundreds of people. Many of them have significant time, space or financial limitations on the amount of email they can keep up with. While this should not deter you from making a contribution that you consider meaningful, you should avoid posts that make no perceptible contribution to a discussion.

4. Shun ad hominem attacks. An ad hominem attack is criticism directed at a person rather than an idea. By all means feel free to disagree with any comment posted on Savoynet. But, direct your response to the comment itself, not the person who made it.

5. Be Sensitive to Copyright. Do not post copyrighted material to Savoynet without the copyright owner's permission. Newspaper and magazine articles that you find on the web, for example, are almost surely copyrighted. Feel free to post a link, which others may follow to the source.

6. Read your inbox before replying. If you are behind on your mail, there's a good chance that the comment you're about to make or the answer you're about to supply has already been posted by someone else. Discussion threads take many twists and turns, and it is better to post one contribution to the thread after you've fully caught up, than to reply individually to each message.

7. Remember private email. Not all replies are of general interest. Use private email if your reply is more appropriate to the original poster than to the entire list.

8. Conduct quizzes and surveys by private email. A request that is likely to generate numerous short responses, many of which are likely to be redundant, is best handled by private email. The original poster should specifically ask for email replies in her original message. After replies have tapered off, it is then appropriate to post a consolidated summary to the net.

Other WWW-based netiquette resources include:

• "The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette," by Arlene H. Rinaldi.

• The Emily Postnews Guide by Brad Templeton (founder of Clarinet and of the usenet newsgroup rec.humor.funny) is justly regarded as a classic.

• Net Etiquette, an on-line version of the book by Virginia Shea.