1.3.5 What about cross-postings?
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
1.3.5 What about cross-postings?
If only possible, avoid them. They generate threads that immediately
lose whatever connection to Nordic culture there may initially have
been, and it's very difficult (read: impossible) to get the people in
other newsgroups to remove s.c.n from their Newsgroups-lines. These
threads have a life of their own and can go on and on for months until
everyone in all the involved newsgroups is sick and tired of them, yet
somehow they just keep continuing. If you want to post your message to
several groups, an intelligent thing to do is to trim the Followup-to:
header to direct replies to one group only. The headers of your
article could look like this, for instance:
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.burma,soc.culture.kuwait
What's foobar in your language?
Followup-To: sci.lang
Remember to mention in your post that the follow-ups have been
redirected so that people will notice it (otherwise there'll always be
those who don't). If you're cross-posting to only a couple of groups,
you could also consider posting it as separate articles instead. Use
your own judgment as to what's going to be the least annoying and/or
bandwidth-consuming method.
You should, of course, keep these things in mind when you post a
follow-up to cross-posted thread. The article might be in place in
soc.culture.nordic, but take a look at the Newsgroups-line anyway:
does it contain newsgroups where the thread clearly does not belong
to? If yes, simply remove them. If you feel it doesn't belong to s.c.n
either, set a proper Followup-To: line to your reply.
If you want to cross-post a request or start a new cross-posted thread
read both newsgroups for a month or two (a year would be safer ;-)
before doing so.
Don't start cross-posted threads without more justification than the
subject being "related" to both groups. You should understand the
culture of both "electronic communities".
Why this?
It is much easier to be misunderstood, misunderstand the context, and
generally get people unhappy with you if you start a cross-posted
thread or follow-up to an article posted to two newsgroups.
If you say something controversial or questionable, you can expect to
get negative responses. If you cross-post and are new to one or both
groups, you are more likely to offend someone unintentionally.
This is not recommended as a pleasant way to introduce yourself, or to
get answers to your questions.
Threads posted to many unrelated newsgroups (with the rare exception
of announcements), are often flame-baits and may deserve to be
ignored.
Continue to:
My Books
