I was searching for some old-ass files when I stumbled across this editorial published on PlanetQuake in December 1998:
http://web.archive.org/web/19981205234750/http://planetquake.com/editorials/llama.shtm
The Death Of The Quake Community?
Decline of Respect and Good Spirits in the online community
>The days when you were what's regarded as a newbie - fragile, confused, and wondering why the hell you moved and fired half a second after you pressed those buttons. With good chance, someone that knew how to play helped you out. Gave a helping hand, told you how to play, and wasted the living pulp out of you afterwards.
>I am sure all of you have seen what are referred to as "llamas" - losers of all losers, or, lamers. Frequently they act like a righteous bastard - fill the chat screen with nasty stuff; shoot at team mates on teamplay mods (though it's debatable whether the guy just thought it was DM);
>They've always mucked up the game for everyone involved, but most of all they muck it up for the new players, who would most likely find their behavior intolerable. The community just tries to ignore them, hoping that they go away. Unfortunately, they won't go away. Worse, their number is growing, not just within the Quake community, but throughout online gaming.
>After a while, I got tired of the people that seemed to enjoy making an ass of themselves. I knew there weren't much that I could really do, but hell, it couldn't hurt. I went ahead and stuck ten or so suggestions that people might want to follow while playing online games, gave it a format which I thought (at the time) was decently elegant, and released it - Quetiquette.
>The rules did span out from the obvious (which I wrote down) to more down towards respect - not shooting the guy who's obviously showing that they're gone by facing a wall, etc.
>There were, of course, those that complained, saying I was posting "rules" and that he didn't have to follow tPost too long. Click here to view the full text.