Internet Etiquette Quotes

Anonymity is no excuse for stupidity.

Ultimately, the Internet is made of people and we need to do a good job at being citizens of that space.

When I started blogging in 2004, I responded to every comment no matter how nasty the reader was. I was generally polite, believing that these critics would be so charmed by my professionalism that they would see the error of their misogynist ways and swiftly run out to read a bell hooks book. Ha!

I read something once that when you're online, your inhibitions are lowered to the state where you've had three drinks. Once you basically know that the entire internet is slightly drunk, it all makes a lot more sense, and you deport yourself accordingly.

If someone writes something shitty and you actually address them, most of the time they're just like, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a big fan." And they're really nice people. When you're on the Internet, it's people's first instinct to just go after people.

As users of the Internet, we all have a role to play in defining what we want it to be.

Most parents would not hesitate to assume responsibility for their child's behavior on a playground, at school, or in someone else's home. What happens online should be no different. Parents should talk with their children about computer ethics, stipulate rules of conduct, and - most importantly - establish consequences.

I've been a jerk on the internet since the internet started.

Some people we define as trolls are just critics. Sometimes they have a point. And I hear them. But for the ones who comment "I want to kill you in your sleep," I respond to them too.

You should never read online comments if you want to keep thoughts above the belt.

Anonymity is an abused privilege, abused most by people who mistake vitriol for wisdom and cynicism for wit.

There are so many little girls who follow me and look up to me. I'm their role model, so I have to make sure I'm always being professional and not putting any swear words out there - just really putting positive things out there on the Internet.

Sorting through what social conventions we ought to adopt for the Internet is a pretty tricky and complicated topic. I think we are just going to live through a lot of these issues until we discover what social norms make sense.

However revolutionary it may be, the Internet still hasn't altered the basic law of human communication: Being nice to your interlocutors is a good way to start any negotiations, particularly, when being hostile is an open invitation for a cyber-fight.

Obviously I have a bit of an awareness because I go to the internet like everybody else but I don't get too involved in the details of those conversations just because it can hurt you if you stumble on something that's not nice.

In some ways, blogging is like drinking - it gives a person permission to be a total asshole.