Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

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One-to-One CMC

E-Mail Basics: @'s, Smileys, Angle Brackets, and Sigs

Tracking Down E-Mail (and Other) Addresses

• BigFoot
• Yahoo! Four11
• InfoSpace
• WhoWhere
• WorldPages

Paddling Through the Patois: Net Jargon

• E-mail's literal form is written language, but its tone is closer to speech.
• E-mail abbreviations, typographic conventions, and computer-speak patois

Common abbreviations in e-mail are:

BTW  	By The Way                    		LOL  Laughing Out Loud

GD&R  Grinning, Ducking, and Running     	L8R  [see you] Later

IMHO 	In My Humble Opinion               	FAQ  Frequently Asked Questions

ROTFL     Rolling On The Floor Laughing      	RTFM Read the Fucking Manual

Smileys or emoticons

Emoticons are punctuation marks that, when viewed sideways, resemble little smiley faces

:)

:-)  smiley with a nose            		:-O  shock

Q:-) smiley with a beret      			:(   sadness, disappointment

;)   irony or flirtation (a wink)       	:]   goofiness

:-p  derision (tongue sticking out)     	8-)  smiley with glasses

Angle brackets (the greater-than/less-than signs: <>) to indicate something akin to stage directions in a play.

E.g., humility might be suggested like this:

<digging toe in sand>
Thank you for the kind words in your last message.

Or, the thrill of discovery might be indicated like this:

<slapping forehead>

I think it would be fun to run a newspaper!

Internet equivalents to underlining, italics, boldface, superscripts, or other common typographic conventions:

_Putting an underscore before/after a phase equals underlining._

Asterisks before/after a word indicate *emphasis* (as if it were
italicized or bolded).


ALL CAPITALS also signifies EMPHASIS, but USING ALL CAPS ALL THE
TIME IS LIKE SHOUTING AND IS DISCOURAGED IN E-MAIL.

Sign Your Messages with a "Sig"

1. Many e-mail systems will automatically append a signature (or sig) to every message.
2. Should be short (no more than five lines) and about 70 characters (or less) wide.

My own sig flirts with these limitations:

Jeremy Butler
jbutler@ua.edu
ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite/
Telecommunication & Film/University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa

Quoting a Message

1. When replying, it's good to quote a small portion of a msg to give the context of your reply
2. Don't quote more than is necessary
3. Often > signs ("angle brackets" or "greater-than signs") are used to signify quoted material

>Tried to run NS Nav 3 on my office's Mac computer. Someone else did the
>installation. It crashes the entire machine when you load it. KER-blooey!
> Any idea what the prob is?

How e-mail works

• Networked computers exchange messages--actually just data in packets
• The information at the top of the message, before the body of it, is known as the header
  • Hidden in some e-mail systems
    • In Pine, HdrMode reveals the full headers
  • Which indicates the route the message took to get from one point to another as well as other information about how the message should be handled
• E.g., the header from a message from Mary Beth Haralovich, chair of Media Arts, to my mailbox in Alabama--which we may dissect line-by-line
  1. Received: from SpoolDir by TCF_NET (Mercury 1.30); 15 Jul 97 10:07:11 CST
  2. Return-path: <mbharalo@U.Arizona.EDU>
  3. Received: from nevis.u.arizona.edu by tcf.ua.edu (Mercury 1.30) with SMTP; 15 Jul 97 10:07:08 CST
  4. Received: from localhost (mbharalo@localhost) by nevis.u.arizona.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id IAA41376 for <jbutler@ua.edu>; Tue, 15 Jul 1997 08:58:04 -0700
  5. Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 08:58:03 -0700 (MST)
  6. From: Mary Beth Haralovich <mbharalo@U.Arizona.EDU>
  7. To: Jeremy Butler <jbutler@ua.edu>
  8. Subject: Lunch for Guests?
  9. Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.93.970715085510.29142K-100000@nevis.u.arizona.edu>
  10. MIME-Version: 1.0
  11. Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
• MIME = Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
• SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• ASCII (pronounced "as-key") = American Standard Code for Information Interchange
• Messages are stored on these computers and may be accessed two ways:
  1. User connects his/her local, client computer (the one sitting in front of them) to the storing or host or server computer and reads the messages that are stored there--while maintaining the connection between the two.  (Remember: most of the Internet is based on the client-server model.)
     • Messages remained physically stored on the host computer (until the user deletes them).
     • E.g., using Telnet client to read your bama.ua.edu mail using Pine; which is actually running on the distant machine and is just being shown to you.
  2. User connects to the message-storing computer, transfers the messages to his/her client computer from the host and then breaks the connection.
     • He/she may then read, respond, and/or compose new messages while disconnected.
     • Although there are several ways to do this, the most common is POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3)
       • An e-mail client contacts a POP server and moves the messages from the distant machine to the local one (the one sitting in front of the user)
     • But, this only works for receiving messages, to send them out you must use a different type of server computer--one that provides SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
       • An e-mail client contacts such an SMTP server and moves the messages from the local machine to the distant one, which then takes care of distributing them across the Internet.
  3. User connects to message-storing computer, and the user chooses either to transfer msgs or not!
     • IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
     • Allowing a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a server. It permits manipulation of remote message folders (mailboxes), in a way that is functionally equivalent to local mailboxes.

Attachments and Related Problems

• Attachments are files attached to the main part of the message
  • Attachments are a common source of viruses
  • E.g., the Melissa virus
    • Spread via an attached MS Word document (a macro-based virus).
    • When the attachment is opened (not when the message is read), it reads the user's e-mail address book and sends itself out to 50 more people.
    • Also corrupts files on your harddrive.
      • If the minute of the hour matches the date (for example, 3:31 on March 31), Melissa will insert the following Bart Simpson quote into the current open Word document: "Twenty-two points, plus triple-word score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game's over. I'm outta here."
    • Launched 3/26/99 and spreading incredibly quickly
    • Melissa timeline
    • A significant antecedent to the "Love Bug" virus/worm (May 2000)
• Materials sent through e-mail protocols must be totally, only ASCII
  • Which makes attachments and non-English characters (like, ñ ) problematic
  • But many e-mail clients have automated the whole process
• HTML Mail (aka "rich text")
  • E-mail used to not allow any formating of text (e.g., italics, boldface)
  • More recent e-mail client software, however, uses HTML code to do so
    • E.g., Netscape Messenger, MS Outlook Express, Eudora Pro
  • Not only can text be formatted, but images can be included.
  • The problem:
  • If someone with an older e-mail program (like Pine) receives an HTML message, it will be filled with extraneous garbage.

Free Web-based E-mail Services

• Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.
• Create your own e-mail service with ZZN
  • E.g., ScreenSite.zzn.com
• Can be handy if you want an e-mail box that your boss/school does not own.
  • Courts have said that employers own all the e-mail on their computer systems. Thus UA has the right to read anything on yours!

Accessing Your Own E-mail When You're Not at Home

• If you're away from your home computer, you may still be able to pick up your e-mail.
  • AOL Mail on the Web
    • Connect to your AOL mail through a Web browser.
  • MailStart
    • MailStart and MailStart Plus work through a Web browser--any Web browser anywhere. You fill in your e-mail address and password and it collects your e-mail for you.

Many-to-Many CMC: Listserving and Newsgrouping

Clerical Robots: LISTSERV, Listprocessor, Maiser, and Majordomo

• An e-mail discussion list takes the basic principle of cc'ing and automates it.
• Instead of a single human keeping a list of individual addresses and sending e-mail to each of them, a discussion list is run by a computer a clerical robot
  • e.g., LISTSERV, Listprocessor, Maiser, and Majordomo
• 'Bot compiles the addresses and automates the distribution of messages. Or, in other words, this clerical robot serves messages to a list of addresses. It is thus generically a listserver.
• Listserving functions:
  1. Subscription
  2. Distribution
  3. Discussion threads
  4. Un-subscription
• Two separate functions with separate addresses:
  • The listserving robot named Maiser, LISTSERV, Listprocessor, Majordomo, etc.
    • E.g., maiser@tcf.ua.edu
  • The group of subscribers.
    • E.g., TCF389@tcf.ua.edu

Indexes and Digests

• Digest
  • compiles the messages from a single day (or week),
  • creates a list of the day's messages,
  • and then sends the list and the messages themselves to the user in a single e-mail package rather than message by message.
• Index
  • Solely a list of messages for each day (or week) usually with their subject headings and posters' names
  • Does not include the messages themselves.
  • Users may then request the specific messages in which they're interested.

Finding Lists

1. CataList, the official catalog of LISTSERV^® lists
   • Browse any of the 18,452 public LISTSERV^® lists on the Internet
2. The List of Lists
   • Search through bazillions more lists--including ones that are not run on LISTSERV^®
3. ScreenSite's listing of film/TV-related discussion groups

Required Lists for TCF 389

1. NewsScan
   • Go to http://www.newsscan.com/subscribe_newsscan.html and fill in the form.
2. TCF389@tcf.ua.edu
   • Use your preferred e-mail account to send the following message to maiser@tcf.ua.edu: subscribe TCF389
3. Internet Tourbus
   • Email LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM with the message SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS YourName

Use bamamail.ua.edu (for UA accounts) or Web access to your preferred account and subscribe to these three lists.

Usenet: It's Kind of Like E-Mail, But Not Really

Usenet = bulletin boards in a hallway.

Newsgroups

• Messages in a newsgroup don't come to you, you must go find them.
• To read newsgroups, you must first connect your computer to another computer that stores Usenet messages.
• These central computers all connect with one another and share the messages that are posted to newsgroups.

Usenet Pointers

1. Use a newsreader program or Netscape Navigator to access newsgroups
   • E.g., news.tcf.ua.edu
2. Newsgroups are arranged in hierarchies
3. Read the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) before posting
   • Finding FAQ's: Ohio State U's list of Usenet FAQ's http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/
4. Binary files and images may be attached to msgs using UUENCODE
   • NS Nav and MS Internet Explorer encode/decode attachments for you
5. Many Usenet resources have been collected at http://www.duke.edu/~mg/usenet/

A few film/TV newsgroups:

Cult movies              			alt.cult-movies
Stanley Kubrick                    		alt.movies.kubrick
Steven Spielberg                   		alt.movies.spielberg
SFX                      			alt.movies.visual-effects
Martin Scorsese                    		alt.movies.scorsese

Class newsgroups:

Forums are only open to students enrolled in the class and are hosted by WebCT.

• Web Reviews - student reviews of Web sites.
• Scavenger Hunt - Internet scavenger hunt.

Instantaneous ("Real-Time") CMC

• Chat Rooms and Channels
  • Commercial Services (e.g., AOL) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
    • Group chats in "channels"
    • Just like CB radio--with typing!
    • More Information: The New IRC Users Homepage http://www.neosoft.com/~biscuits/ircmds.html
    • WebCT TCF389 Chat
  • One-on-one chat software
    • ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger
      
      Previously limited to AOL members only, it now works with anyone on the Internet. (Statistics as of July 1999.)
• "Internet Phone": Audio Over the Internet
  • VocalTec http://www.vocaltec.com/
• CUseeMe: Chat With Sound & Pictures
  • http://www.cuseeme.com
• Real-Time Audio/Video (one-way, streaming)
  • Real Networks
    • E.g., All Things Acoustic, on Alabama Public Radio

CMC Hazards

1. E-mail (In)Security

• At most locations, the computer system administrator or postmaster can read any mail stored on that system.
• Moreover, as your mail travels an electronic route it can be read by just about any system administrator along the way.
• Employers own company e-mail.
• Hackers/crackers may sniff for keywords like "VISA" or "password"
• Protect yourself with encryption
  • Scramble your message using a specific key that you and your addressee both know. When he/she receives the message, he/she uses the key to decrypt it.
  • Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
  • More on this later in the semester.

2. Flames and Flame Wars

• Rude or offensive messages attacking someone are known as flames
• May be used as a verb as well as a noun.
• The best treatment for flames is to extinguish them with the delete key. To engage the enemy typically leads to a flame war (an escalating exchange of flames), in which there are few winners.

3. E-Mail Fraud: Spam and Fake Messages

One of my e-mail boxes is very susceptible to spam. Here's a week's sample:

Examining the message headers can often tell you where the message really came from. Sam Spade software automates the process.

You can then track down the contact persons for the real source.

How to deal with spammers

• E-mail the real mailer's postmaster or abuse person
  • E.g., postmaster@interlinx.qc.ca
  • E.g., abuse@aol.net or abuse@aol.com
• Look up real name of the company and contact them
  • Doesn't always work
  • A program such as Sam Spade can automate this detective work.
  • Just paste the entire header into it and it'll tell you where it really came from.
• Do not reply to the fake address with a complaint
  • Usually it'll just bounce back
  • Sometimes spammers pick a real person's name as a way to harass them
  • Some spammers use responses as as cofirmation that your address works and increase the spam
  • Some even ask for a reply, promising to take your name off their list, but then just use it as a confirmation!
• Filter your e-mail
  • Many e-mail clients will automatically delete messages with particular subjects
    • E.g., "!!!!!!!!" or "Sex" or "Make Money Fast"
  • Or from particular locations
    • E.g., Cyberpromotions--which is now (1998) out of business

4. E-Mail Obesity: Keeping Your Mailbox Lean and Mean

1. Squirrel away a copy of the list's instructions so that you might unsubscribe quickly. It's a good idea to start a folder containing list instructions.
2. If the volume of a list is too great, switch to a digest or index version of it.
3. Don't subscribe to more than one list at a time. Get a sense of how busy a new list is before you add new ones.
4. Review the list's archives to see how many messages are in it. SCREEN-L and many other lists have archives that are available via e-mail, and/or the World Wide Web.
5. If you are having trouble with the robot, contact the human who maintains it; but make an effort to resolve the problem on your own first. Otherwise, depending on how harried the human is, you may be told RTFM.
6. Sample the list's Usenet newsgroup (if one exists) to see how busy it is.

5. E-Mail Viruses and Other Hoaxes

Computer viruses are a real and significant problem, but, currently, you cannot catch one simply by reading an e-mail message.

However, you may be infected by opening an attachment to an e-mail message. In fact, in 1999 e-mail became the most common way of transporting viruses--bypassing the floppy disk as the most common carrier.

Most of these are "macro" or script viruses that live in Microsoft Word documents. Never open a Word document--even from a friend--unless you've been told, in advance, that it will be sent to you. Even then, you might want to check with the person before opening it.

(The Melissa [March 1999] and Love Bug [May 2000] viruses masked themselves as notes from friends.)

You can separate the hoaxes from the real threats by visiting:

• The Computer Incident Advisory Capability homepage--from the U.S. Department of Energy (!)
  • Local mirror.
• Computer Virus Myths Web site

6. Sexual (And Other) Harassment in CMC

• Chat rooms and other instantaneous CMC can attract chowderheads whose sole interest is to harass women. Some caution is advisable.
  • Use a gender-neutral name
  • Use the "bozo filtering" capabilities of your client software
    • Most CMC software allows you to block messages from specific persons

Bibliography

1. International Computer Security Association, Fifth Annual ICSA Computer Virus Prevalence Survey: 1999.