TRule 1: When you see text appearing on your screen, remember that there’s a human on the other side.
Rule 2: Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it; information wants to be free. (Gilmore’s Law)
Rule 3: For every opinion there is at least one equally loud and opposing opinion.
Rule 4: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. (Godwin’s Law)
Rule 5: Never attribute to malice or conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by stupidity: People say hurtful things on Internet. (Hanlon’s Razor)
Rule 6: One cannot argue with stupid. (Callahan’s Principle). Inevitably, when someone comments with an off-the-wall, untenable, or distasteful viewpoint, some well-meaning soul attempts to argue them out of it. Don’t.
Rule 7: Don’t feed the trolls. A ‘troll’ in Internet parlance is someone who is deliberately provoking argument, being insulting, or just trying to derail the conversation off-topic. Arguing with troll is purposeless, that’s what they want.
Rule 8: Intensity of an online argument is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue. (Sayre’s Law)
Rule 9: Passion in an online argument is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available. (Benford’s ‘Law of Controversy’)
Rule 10: Those who are most eager to share their opinions are more likely to be those whose opinions are of least value. (Campbell’s Theorem). Alternatively: stupid people shout the loudest.
Rule 11: With every post/comment in an online conversation, relation to the original topic decreases. The Internets have a hard time focusing, it seems…
Rule 12: Likelihood of a post or comment being read by others decreases with every page of posts/comments that comes before it.
Rule 13: Likelihood of a post or comment being read by others is inversely proportional to the amount of time you spent writing it. You could call this the ‘too long, didn’t read’ principle.
Rule 14: Likelihood of a post or comment being deleted is directly proportional to the amount of time you spent writing it.
Rule 15: Likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to embarrassment it will cause the poster. (Skitt’s Law)
Rule 16: Any post written to correct editing or proofreading will itself contain an editing or proofreading error. (Muphry’s Law)
Rule 17: Without deliberate indication of humor, at least one person will mistake any parody for the real thing. (Corollary of Poe’s Law)
Rule 18: Without a deliberate indication of humor, it’s impossible to tell some instances of parody from the real thing. (Corollary of Poe’s Law)
Rule 19: It’s impossible to criticize an individual, group, institution or product without simultaneously advertising for them. In many cases, people have become more popular due to their detractors.
Rule 20: Lurk before you leap. If you’re new to a forum, a board, a blog-ring or the like, keep quiet until you’ve gotten your bearings.
Rule 21: It’s preferable to post in an existing thread than to start a new thread on the exact same topic. Join that conversation rather than start a whole new one.
Rule 22: There is no topic so thoroughly covered that somebody won’t bring it up again… but it shouldn’t be so.
Rule 23: What happens on Internet stays on Internet–forever. If something gets put on Internet, it never goes away. Consider this a warning to anyone who plans on someday running for office.
Rule 24: On the Internet, one is only as anonymous as one allows oneself to be. Some people are afraid of ever posting, blogging, or talking on Internet, for fear of stalkers finding out all about them. The truth is, with few exceptions, people will only find out as much about you as you yourself reveal.
Rule 25: As anonymity increases, likelihood of incivility increases. (Russo’s Theorem)
Rule 26: Never take the identity of another for granted. That hot girl on Facebook might really be a forty-year-old man.
Rule 27: Neutrality is valuable. To have a website that carefully considers both sides of a controversial issue is a treasured thing. Neutrality is the closest to objectivity…
Rule 28: Neutrality is finite. There are issues about which it’s impossible to be neutral.
Rule 29: Viable, successful Internet meme will be passed on. The term ‘meme’ refers to; an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person-to-person within a culture.
Rule 30: Internet meme only remains viable so long as: [People who are encountering it for first time] are greater than [People who have encountered it before]. (Carr’s Law)
Rule 31: When one transmits a meme after it has been declared unviable, one opens oneself to ridicule.
Rule 32: If you can imagine it, someone has imagined it already. It’s hard to be original with six billion other people also trying to be original.
Rule 33: Good screen names are already taken. You’ll have to resign yourself to adding a string of numbers on the end.
Rule 34: If you can imagine it, there is porn of it. (Yokai’s Law)
Rule 35: If you can imagine it, and there is ‘no’ porn of it, porn will be created. (Munroe’s Corollary). A scary thought.
Rule 36: Internet devours both concentration and time. I really think that, in order to maintain concentration in the digital age, you have to… oh, hang on…
Rule 37: 80% of everything is crap. (4 to 1 rule): 80% of all email is spam, 80% of all website content is copy/pasted from somewhere else, 80% of all websites are ads…
Rule 38: On Internet, all expressions, common phrases, and common nouns will eventually be reduced to acronyms.
Rule 39: Don’t go to Internet for counsel, for it will say; ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘ask somewhere else’. When multiple people are answering one question, expect multiple and conflicting answers.
Rule 40: Nobody ever ignores what they should ignore on Internet. (Reimer’s Reason).