Greetings, everyone. We'd like to introduce the Compliance department of WebTV Networks, and let you know a little bit about what we do. By striving to ensure that you experience a safe and enjoyable online environment, Compliance needs to both educate and inform you about what the dos and don'ts are through the commonly-accepted rules of Netiquette. As most of you know, not everyone on the Internet complies with these rules, but you can.

One way that all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) try to maintain this environment is by creating a Terms of Service (TOS). Part of our job is to enforce these terms and make sure that all of you are complying with them. This should in turn create a more enjoyable community.

When any WebTV subscriber is not complying with the Terms of Service, then you should notify abuse@webtv.net.

Who reads the messages that you send to abuse? Well, again, that's us! The Compliance department starts their action here. We consist of a small group of people dedicated to addressing the concerns that you have. Each day we read through the latest abuse emails and try to determine what cause of action we can take against those violating our TOS.

So let's say you've received spam (junk email) or see something you feel violates the WebTV TOS. What should you do? First and foremost make sure that the message or post is sent from a WebTV subscriber. If you see no evidence that the message has been forged, then forward one copy from the user in question to abuse@webtv.net. If the sender is not a WebTV subscriber we have no authority to take action and the matter needs to be forwarded to his or her own ISP.

Next, we need an explanation of what the problem is. We get countless messages forwarded to us that say something like: "Hi, my name is Bob. What's yours?" with no accompanying explanation of the problem. These emails are logged, but no action can be taken unless you tell us what the violation is. For example, maybe it wasn't that 'Bob' was introducing himself to you but rather the fact that you received this same email 50 times in one day. If you don't give us a brief explanation, then this wouldn't be known and the problem wouldn't get addressed. The opposite of that are those who tell us too much. Please understand that we get email from both WebTV subscribers and everyone else out there on the Internet who has a complaint about a WebTV subscriber. So if you can keep your explanation short and to the point, our ability to get to these problems in an efficient manner will increase.

If you are still curious as to what we here in the Compliance Department do and how we handle your complaints, please write us at elvis@corp.webtv.net. Five of your questions will be answered in next month's article. The rest of your questions will be taken into consideration for future articles but please note that because of time constraints we won't be able to personally answer them.

Thank you, and let's be careful out there.