The mail system using mobile phones that you are familiar with is created drawing on the email system used on the Internet. For this reason they have many aspects in common, therefore even if you use email for the first time, perhaps you will be able to use it without difficulty. However, in this section we would like to confirm the differences between them including manners.

Here are the characteristics of email compared with mail using mobile phones.

• There is no limit in the system to the number of characters or size of the attached files
• There is no limit in the system to the number of mail messages stored or to the period of time the mail can be stored
• The size of the display is large
• It can be used on any PC connected to the Internet (you cannot receive mail sent to you on the mobile phones of other people)

In writing email, you have to mind your manners as described below.

• Be sure to write emails with a Subject (title) that represents its contents
    The Subject should be an appropriate one, such as “Cannot connect to SOSEKI” or “How to write a reply using Seemit”, not a simple one like “Hello” or “Question”.
• Make sure to write your name first
    It is not polite to make the recipient guess who you are only from the mail address.
• Insert line breaks every certain number of characters
    An appropriate amount of text in a line is around 30 characters

In addition to this, you should keep in mind the following points when you use email.

• HTML mail
    If an email is HTML mail, you might be infected with a virus even only by previewing (displaying) the body of the email. This is because the body of HTML mail is actually written using the HTML language, so it is possible to write the code in it to infect a machine.
    From the viewpoint of manners when using email, send emails to others in text format, not in HTML format. If it is written in text format, it cannot infect the machine of the recipient just by them previewing it.


• Encryption
    Email could be seen by other people before it is received by the recipient, like receiving a “postcard” in ordinary mail. If you would like to keep its contents secret, you have to encrypt it separately.


• Write in written language that is generally used.
    Keep in mind that the recipient may read it repeatedly and retain it as a record

Here is a typical example of an email.

   

(Question) Do you see the problem in the email below?

   

(Answer)

• There is no title (Subject) of the email
• The signature comes at the top of the body (signature is from “--” to “…ac.jp”)
• We cannot identify who sent the email (no name is written in it)
• The contents of the email is too simple to understand the situation