Thinking of sending that survey to your 2,754 MySpace friends? Here are some basic etiquette tips that all MySpace users should follow.
MySpace is a great way to network and communicate with friends. However, because social networking websites so are new, people haven't quite figured out how to be polite in this context. This happens whenever there's a new communication medium; people didn't know telephone manners at first either, and lots of people still havent figured out email or cell phone etiquette.
Here are ten good netiquette tips to keep you in your MySpace friends' good graces.
- Don't bad mouth people on MySpace. Sure, it's tempting, And some people probably deserve to be flamed publicly. But humiliating someone on a format as open as the Internet is just a nasty and immature thing to do. Besides, it makes the poster look like a drama queen, so don't do it. If someone tries to bully you into a flame war, ignore them.
- Use bulletins in moderation. Don't send more than one bulletin per week, max. People who send along quizzes and junk mail and an announcement of every little event in their lives are annoying. Bulletins are best used if you have some big news you'd like to share, like pregnancy or a new job. You can also use them to tell people that you've got new pictures up or a blog you'd really like people to read. (Don't do this for every blog-- just for special ones.)
- Send quizzes and surveys in moderation-- if ever. If you're on MySpace, you probably have at least one friend who's a serial survey sender. Ugh! If you find a really neat quiz or survey, and if you're incredibly bored, then send it as a bulletin-- but do this on rare occasion!
- Never send chain mail bulletins. Those MySpace bulletins that say, "Send this along to 10 friends or you will have bad luck for a year" are juvenile. Avoid irritating your friends and delete them.
- Make sure your page is easy to open and navigate. You can pimp your page with all kinds of great skins and cursors, but make sure you don't add something to your page that takes ages to open and makes it hard to read. Avoid overloading your page with pictures.
- Keep your page PG-13-- unless your friends really don't care. One of the first rules of all etiquette is to avoid making people feel uncomfortable, so keep your page in line with your friends' comfort level. If you add your 78-year-old Aunt Bertha, make sure she feels welcome.
- Email people before requesting an add. If you find an old friend on MySpace, it's polite to send them a friendly MySpace email as opposed to simply requesting to be their friend. Chances are, if they want to be your friend, they'll follow your email up with an add request.
- Don't put people in an awkward position who don't really want to add you. Here's an example: a coworker you don't know well sends you an add request. You'd rather not have someone you work with reading your private page, but if you say no, you'll have to deal with this person at work. Avoid putting people in positions like this.
- Don't confront someone who doesn't want to be your friend. If they deny you, so be it. Asking them why will make them feel uncomfortable and can border on stalking.
- If you use your page to promote something, do so tactfully. Lots of people use MySpace to promote bands, products, and webpages, and that's fine. But there's a thin line between promotion and spam, so be subtle.
See also: MySpace safety tips for parents
The copyright of the article MySpace Etiquette Tips in Social Networking/Tagging is owned by Naomi Rockler-Gladen. Permission to republish MySpace Etiquette Tips in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
