Going on-line
A guide to e-mail and the Internet at The Kansas City Star

E-mail usage
A word about viruses and hoaxes
Internet - rules of conduct for journalists

E-mail
If you can remember this skateboarder term, you'll be set:

RAD
Read
Answer
Delete

• Read your messages every day.


• Answer them in a timely manner.


• Delete them after you have answered.

If you do this, you won't be bogged down in messages. Do you save every e-mail sent to you? Why? If it is to save the addresses, we've got a handy tip for you:

Tip: Point the cursor at the e-mail address in the header, and press down the right-hand mouse button. Release. You will see a prompt that says: Save in personal address book. Click on it. Voila!

Managing mountains of mail

Miriam Pepper, readers' representative, could be called the queen of e-mail. In any given week, she gets 100-150 e-mails. She responds to every one. According to Pepper, "You have to reply. Never ignore a letter. Readers are so appreciative if you write them back, and this is a perfect opportunity to create a little goodwill." She also has a tip:

Tip: Set up your signature (see e-mail instructions). After you do this, you will never forget to sign your letters -- it will be done for you! Also set up a one-sentence letter that you can send in a crunch or expand on. For example: "Thank you for writing. I appreciate reader feedback "Sending this form-letter note is not the best, but it is better than sending no reply at all.

Never ignore your messages. Remember RAD -- Read, Answer and Delete.
Respond quickly. Several readers, when finally contacted by someone here at The Star, have said, "This is the first time anyone has written (called) me back."
Be concise. Shorter replies will help you manage your e-mail.
Always use a subject in the header. If you don't, it either will be overlooked or people will be suspicious. What do you think when you get an e-mail without a subject?
Clean up after yourself. After you reply, delete. That means delete from your IN box. Unlike Eudora, Microsoft Exchange has a self-cleaning Delete box. But other boxes you still need to keep clean are the SENT and OUT boxes.

Tip: To turn on Exchange's automatic delete function, open the Tools menu, select Options and click on the general tab. There are several options to choose from, including when you 'd like to have your mail deleted.

Never use e-mail as an archive. If you do, you are guaranteed to lose it all at some point. If you need to save important letters, print them out or save them as a word processing document.
Make folders. If you receive a lot of mail on a particular subject and don't want to wade through your IN box every time to check a message, you can create a folder to temporarily store like messages.

Answering e-mails professionally

E-mail to a reader is the same as writing a letter on office letterhead. Remember, not only is your name in your e-mail address, but so is The Star's.
E-mail lends itself to being more informal, so don't fall into the trap of jotting a note that doesn't treat the recipient with respect:
Be polite. Treat the person you are writing with respect. You do not have to suffer through obscene or crude language, nor do you have to suffer through clearly racist letters. (See hate mail, below.)
Use upper- and lower-case letters. Including the pronoun I (not i). Writing in all upper-case letters tends to convey ANGER OR SHOUTING. Lower-case conveys informality.
Use a signature with full name and title. If you set it up (see above), this won't be a hassle.
Don't slip into slang or newspaper jargon. Remember, you may be writing to people who have varying degrees of expertise. Some readers may not understand newspaper terminology such as ledes, grafs, bastard measure, cutlines, even masthead. Try to avoid or explain such jargon when possible.
Don't use emoticons or electronic shorthand. Symbols, such as :-) (smile) or BTW (by the way) might not be understood by everyone.
Avoid misspellings and botched grammar. You can set up e-mail to spellcheck before you send every piece of e-mail. Use courtesy titles when necessary.
Calm down. If you are angry with the person, wait five minutes (or five hours) and cool off. Remember to assume the messages you send and receive are permanent and public. Don't send anything you would be embarrassed to have your name (and The Star's) attached to.
Be clear. Realize that sending e-mail is not the same as talking to a person face to face. A sentence that might be clear to someone talking to you face to face might come across quite differently without the tone of your voice or the look on your face to add content.
Include enough of the original message in your response so the person reading can put it into context. This is particularly important if the other person may not read your response for a day or two.

Dealing with hate mail

Don't confuse the message with the messenger. You may disagree with someone but don't attack him or her personally. Attack the ideas if you feel you must, but keep the contact professional.
Now, if you receive e-mail that is threatening or overtly racist or bigoted:

• Print a copy and inform your editor and Rob Perschau, editorial systems manager.


• Don't respond.
• If it continues, mail can be blocked.

People often feel freer to say things in e-mail than in any other form of communication, so staffers may find they are getting more strongly worded correspondence. Don't take it personally. And be careful what you write. It can be easily misinterpreted.

Tip: Unless you are required for newspaper purposes, avoid corresponding at work with hate groups. Also avoid visiting their Web sites, especially if those sites require you to leave your name or e-mail address. Also be aware that visiting one of these sites leaves an Internet footprint that can be traced to The Kansas City Star domain.

Company rights and your rights

Does The Star automatically monitor e-mail? No.
Does The Star have the legal right to intercept and read your mail? Yes. Again, assume that all e-mail is permanent and public.
Surfing the Net at The Star should be strictly work-related. Research may take you to many different kinds of Internet pages, but you should avoid pornographic Web sites. If you need to go to any questionable site, tell your editor, and plan to do the research at a time and place so as not to expose your co-workers to possibly offensive material.
Never download programs, such as games, screen savers and photos, to your hard drive without permission.

Listservs

Helpful or a hindrance?
A listserv is an Internet fileserver that automatically distributes mail to a list of subscribers. Most lists concentrate on specific subjects, such as Microsoft software, genealogy, or politics. Depending on the traffic and the size of the list, you can get from one to 100 e-mails a day. This can be extremely tiresome and interfere with replying to readers. However, some listservs are helpful for reporters who want to keep up on the latest news on a particular topic, beat, industry or organization.

Tip: Many listservs can break up messages into categories, then forward only the categories you are interested in. Another idea is to ask whether they can send a digest. This is a daily compilation of the postings in one message. Check with the listserv's webmaster or webmistress to see if that particular organization can do it. Unfortunately many listservs operate for the purpose of "spamming" or sending unsolicited commercial or promotional messages. Some may add your e-mail address without your permission. Follow the messages' precise instructions for removing your address from the list. In some cases, this might take more than one attempt.

Going on-line can be convenient, efficient and fun. Follow these suggestions and you can become an expert. Bottom line: If you don't know something, ask.

Back to Going Online

A word about viruses...

True story:
One day, an unsuspecting employee of The Star clicked on an attachment he got in an e-mail. Disaster ensued. It was a virus, and it wiped out hundreds of files this user had on his machine, and thousands more on company file servers.
Similar scenarios have occurred at The Star in the past, and they'll continue to occur until everyone practices a little common sense when it comes to e-mail (and attached files), and realizes there are lots of people around just looking to be malicious toward computer users.
There's no doubt e-mail is a very efficient tool to exchange and distribute files - reports, press releases, statistics and photographs (to name a few) can be made available at the click of a button. On the other hand, e-mail is the greatest virus delivery system ever invented, because it's cheap, easy to use, and it preys on users who are uneducated or not skeptical enough about what they get.
If you found a pill on the street, would you swallow it just to see what happened? No (at least we hope not). So learn from the lessons of others who have suffered through viruses on their computers and follow a few simple rules:

1. Keep in mind that e-mail viruses always show up as files attached to an e-mail message. There is no known way to infect your computer just by reading an e-mail message.
2. Never open attachments of any type arriving by e-mail that are from someone you don't know, or whose e-mail address you don't recognize.
3. Never open attachments of any type coming from a trusted source - a friend or co-worker - you didn't ask for or weren't expecting. Some viruses can go through a victim's address book and send themselves out again, infecting others. If you weren't expecting an attachment, ask the sender. They might be infected and not know it.
4. If you receive a file whose name ends in .exe, do not open it. Ever.
5. If there's ever any doubt about what you've received in an e-mail, or receive something suspicious, call a member of the newsroom's support team.

Back to Going Online

...and debunking hoaxes

(de'bunk (vt): to expose and ridicule the falseness and stupidity of.)

Viruses are a real threat, but panicky e-mail virus warnings, passed on and forwarded from user to user, are usually hoaxes.
Keep in mind three things:

1. You cannot get a virus just by reading an e-mail message.
2. Any virus warning that promises utter disaster, calamity, and death - or uses a large number of exclamation points - probably is a hoax. Do not forward virus warnings.
3. Legitimate virus warnings will, most likely, come from the newsroom's support staff-which can also determine whether a warning you receive is legitimate or not.

And another thing: Disney and Microsoft are not going to team up and send you to Disney World for free (or send you $5,000) just for forwarding their e-mail, nor is Miller going to send you a six-pack for doing the same.
So do the world a favor by not perpetuating hoaxes, and resist the temptation to forward such messages to everyone you know.

Back to Going Online

The Internet

As more reporters and editors gain access to the Internet and other on-line services - using company modems and accounts - it's important to remember that we represent The Star in those situations as well as ourselves.
We should conduct ourselves in discussion groups, in e-mail messages and on bulletin boards and other services as though we are representing the newspaper at a public meeting.
We should generally apply the guidelines in The Star's and Knight Ridder's ethics codes in our conduct on various networks.
As always, avoiding conflicts or the appearance of conflicts should be paramount. To paraphrase the ethics code: Avoid even the appearance of a conflict, even one that would allow a hostile news source to legitimately call our impartiality into question.

1. Every reporter should develop a "signature" file, automatically tacked on to every piece of e-mail he or she sends to the Internet, noting that we do not necessarily speak for the newspaper, and vice versa.
2. Jealously guard your password. Never give it to others or send it out on the Net. Security is becoming more and more important, and plenty of Net users - corporate and personal - have been victimized by "mail bombs," "spamming" and security breaches. Never send company credit card numbers (or personal ones) across the Net, unless the operator of the site is well known to you and The Star.
3. If you want to download files from the Internet, including text files, get help from Rob or others first to make sure they are properly scanned for viruses. As Rob likes to note, "It's nasty out there."
4. There is a huge and growing mass of cybersleaze out there. Examples of racism and intolerance are also abundantly available. It would not be good for The Star to be associated in any way with these discussion groups or listservs.
5. We should keep in mind that what we write, both in private e-mail and in postings to mailing lists and newsgroups, could easily be forwarded to millions of people, and chances are good that it will be saved somewhere, possibly forever.
6. Issues of how libel, copyright, privacy and slander could be applied on the Internet change hourly, so we should not repeat unsubstantiated charges and rumors. We do not condone libel by others on public newsgroups and forums.
7. We encourage discussion among our staff and the local community, but we should not take sides on matters of public debate, such as politics and public affairs, and in places where commentary would hurt our effectiveness as journalists. Our role is to provide facts, analysis, questions, balance and insight - but not opinions; to encourage discussion and a variety of points of view, but not to state what we think should be done. This is a subtle line, but most experienced reporters are used to drawing it.
8. In quoting from electronic communications, we will make certain the communication is genuine, as it is easy to fake Internet return addresses or log on as someone else. The Net is not controlled like a wire service; hoaxes and inaccuracies can and do come from everywhere.
9. If we use e-mail in our reporting, we should be aware that without voice inflections, it is difficult to interpret someone 5 tone. We should identify the source of the quote and the means of obtaining it. And, in the end, we should remember that, when there is time, there is no substitute for face-to-face communication or, if that is not possible, a telephone call where the medium includes voice inflections.
10. No one can claim that posting to a list, newsgroup or relay chat is off the record, and unless there is prior agreement with a reporter, private e-mail cannot be considered off the record. We do not ask permission to quote, but we are sensitive to the fact that some people are not aware that what they contribute to the global network may be forwarded and published in newspapers. However, we don't betray confidences. It is all too easy to inadvertently quote a personal letter in a posting to the entire group.
11. Courtesy on the Internet (and avoiding getting appropriately flamed) requires basic technical competence. If you don't know how to use an Internet device, ask someone or read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) files before wading in.
12. We don't make statements that can be interpreted as official positions of The Star, or its editors and officials.
13. Try to remember that the Net is international. Americans have made fools of themselves by forgetting this in the past. Let's not make the same mistake again.

Have fun on the Internet, but be careful out there. Contributors: Mike McGraw, Stan Austin and Greg Reeves