Is it "Crossposting"?
Paul Massey
"crossposting" if I then post another group with the same question?
How long should I wait? Should I change the message before I post
another group?
I don't want to be rude. Or am I just splitting hairs here?
Kathy I. Morgan
> If I post a question on a newsgroup and nobody answers is it considered
> "crossposting" if I then post another group with the same question?
No, that would be multiposting. Crossposting is when you post the same
message to two or more newsgroups at the same time. When you crosspost
a message, make sure your question is truly ontopic for all of th groups
you're sending it to. Some servers drop all messages crossposted to
more than 5 groups, so try to limit the crosspost to only a very few
groups. If you crosspost to more than 2 or 3 groups, you should
probably set followups to only 1 or 2 of them and mention in the post
that you have set the followups.
> How long should I wait? Should I change the message before I post
> another group? I don't want to be rude. Or am I just splitting hairs
> here?
I would wait at least 5 days before posting the message again in another
group, and when you do, mention the earlier post in the new one. You
could say something like, "I posted this question last week in foo.bar
but never got any response, so maybe someone here in foo.bar.misc could
help me out. Or is there some other newsgroup where I should be
asking?"
Why wait so long? Some servers are very slow to get messages, and maybe
the person who knows the answer just hasn't seen your question yet. In
some groups where I help out, I'll see a question that I think maybe I
know the answer but I'm not certain. I'll wait for someone else to
answer it, but if I still haven't seen any other answers after about 5
days then I'll post my idea. Sometimes even if my answer is wrong,
someone who knows the correct answer but didn't see your message will
followup to me with a correction.
Another option would be to post a followup to your original question,
quoting the original message and saying something like, "I never saw any
reponses to my question and I still need an answer. Can anyone help
out?" and crosspost this followup to the second group. (If you do that,
it might be a good idea to mention it at the top of the followup by
adding "[Crossposted to foo.bar.misc]" without the quotes.)
Many of the people who may know the answer to your question are probably
reading both newsgroups, and they will think that it's rude to
separately post the question to both groups. If you mention the other
post and why you're posting the question again, they are less likely to
be upset by it and more inclined to help out.
If your news server regularly drops a lot of messages, it may be that
someone has answered your question but the response didn't appear on
your server. In that case, you could also say in your second message
something to the effect, "I'll be watching for answers here in the
newsgroup, but please also send me an email copy since I suspect my
server is dropping messages."
--
Kathy
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Peter Bennett
Morgan) wrote:
>Paul Massey <cris...@webtv.net> wrote:
>
>> If I post a question on a newsgroup and nobody answers is it considered
>> "crossposting" if I then post another group with the same question?
>
>No, that would be multiposting. Crossposting is when you post the same
>message to two or more newsgroups at the same time.
I think multiposting (at least, the sort people are likely to complain
about) is posting essentially the same message separately to several
newsgroups in a short time.
Waiting a few days between posting to the same or different newsgroup
is just posting again, and is not likely to get any complaints (unless
you post the same message every two days for a couple of weeks)
--
Peter Bennett VE7CEI
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Kathy I. Morgan
> I think multiposting (at least, the sort people are likely to complain
> about) is posting essentially the same message separately to several
> newsgroups in a short time.
>
> Waiting a few days between posting to the same or different newsgroup
> is just posting again, and is not likely to get any complaints (unless
> you post the same message every two days for a couple of weeks)
I think in most groups that's true, but there is one group I read where
I regularly see cranky followups saying basically, "You already posted
that question in the other group and I answered it there." I guess it
really boils down to the importance of reading a group for a period of
time before posting in it, to make sure you know what's acceptable in
that group.