Cross-post
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cross-posting is the act of submitting an article to more than one newsgroup or mailing list. This is done to get broader coverage of an issue.
Cross-posting is often frowned upon, but if the groups to whom the post is submitted are all independent, but appropriate to the subject matter, objections are generally minimal.
Cross-posting stands in stark contrast to Multi-posting (whereby the same material is posted several places--without any links between the occurrences and without all information, in the form of commonly-shared reponses, available to all who read the original post).
Reasons for cross-posting (as opposed to posting the same item individually to several groups):
- When the posts are linked, readers of one group (who do not read all of the groups) will gain from the wisdom of those in the other groups.
- After the question has been adequately answered in one group, people in another group will not continue to respond with the same solution.
- It is more likely that erroneous statements in responses will be corrected.
How to cross-post:
1. Put each of the groups to whom you would like to submit the post on the Newsgroups line (or To line); separate the groups with commas.
2. NOTE: Some people find the following technique nearly as objectionable as Multi-posting, in that (if you are not reading the post in the group on the Followup-to line) in order to read the responses, you must leave the group you are in.
Select a single group to which you would like the responses to go and put it on the Followup-to line.
If you use this method, do note in the body of the post that Followup-to is set. (The worst aspect of the Followup-to technique is that it is so often done improperly.)
As always, make sure that the Subject line accurately describes the content of the post.
