Should military courtesy be required in RallyPoint?

We should act like adults.

I'm courteous because I would like other people to be courteous to me. Were I still active, I would use proper terms of address, my sirs and ma'ams (which I still do) and avoid controversy. But I'm retired. So if someone gets nasty with me, I don't care what rank they wear or where, I'll dish it out in return.

There's quite a few responses to read through and have read most of them. It's hard to use the courtesy in a social network such as RP. This being said I have a few reasons...
1) It's hard to tell for those that have ets'd, retired or other wise what they do on the civilian side now. Just because we see the last accuired military rank such as SPC, you may be president, CEO, GM or higher positions which come with the respect of being called sir or Ma'am.
2) This is the one I feel is my better argument. In a military social environment where alcohol is consumed, rank always went to the way side. seiner NCO's couldn't drop a junior but a junior didn't always have to address his leaders as such. Yes we still have those the verbal respect they deserved but we weren't sticklers on it. I know not everyone is consuming alcohol here but it's with the same concept as such.

I don't necessarily think anyone is exempt from it, it's a courtesy. But I also think that it depends on what is going one: if you are being courteous in your responses and respectful then that's one thing. If it's a one post response to something then definitely use it. If it's a full blown conversation, then I think it's ok (respectful conversation) if it doesn't go in every single post. You're bound to miss one here and there. Doesn't make you a horrible person. (But then again, I'm not an officer)

I think a person's choice to use or refrain from courtesy is a strong market of his or her character in all circumstances. Active duty are bound by regulation, regardless of medium.

Common courtesy should prevail. Rank in a social medium of this type is irrelevant.

I don't know about vetreans but to answer your question yeah. I know I do because no matter what we are supposed to respect the rank no matter if we are on duty, off duty, Facebook or here . We are all professionals at all times no matter what.

I think some of these responses have gone way off the main topic/question. This thread needs to be closed. The main question was how do you address someone on this website/forum/social media with regards to their military service.

We should all show common courtesy regardless.

After reviewing all of the responses to this post, I find it interesting that with few exceptions: Sir, Ma'am, Rank etc. is noticeably absent. We may think we are doing what we are saying; however, the reality is that this is still a social networking site which allows anonymity behind the veil of our screens, so casual reference appear to be the norm. I do think though that the professionalism of the responses have increased. Awareness and knowledge and as you may know "Knowing is Half the Battle, GI Joe"