How to avoid being impolite when we communicate through email or IM?

Online interaction that comes to email or instant messages is nothing new to us and as such it may make us think that we are very good at using such kind of services like Gmail or AIM. A recent article published by the online magazine PCWorld shows that there are still some aspects we may overlook when we communicate over the Internet. Thus, the magazine advises to follow below steps so as to be ethical when we talk to other through email or IM client.

Spamming. Some of us can unintentionally become a source of spam if we are not very attentive when we send email messages. This may happen if we keep same contacts in different group lists and we have a habit to send similar messages to the whole groups. If for instance one person is listed in several categories like “Friends”, “School”, “California” and “America” it may turn out that we would send four similar messages to the same addressee.

Reply to all. It is important to remember to use this function only if the message is of critical importance to the vast majority of those listed. Misuse of the "reply to all" feature is a primary culprit in environments where the flood of e-mail is out of control.

Out of office messages are more useful than you think. Arranging to send an automated "out of office" e-mail response to anyone who sends you a message can be a big time saver for people who are trying to get in touch with you. Make sure, however, that you know how the "out of office" system works so that the response goes out only once per sender and not as a "reply to all"

Considerate attitude. It is important to remember that superfluous chattering over the IM can prevent our interlocutor from properly executing his duties at work during office hours.

Avoid crosstalk. It's common for IM sessions with a single contact to split into two or more simultaneous conversations, since thoughts arrive faster than fingers can type them. Things get tricky when one side writes "I hate that" and it isn't clear what they're referring to--potentially offending the other participant. If a session starts getting unduly complicated, table one discussion and return to it later.