Crossposting

[Steve Hayes]

On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 22:51:03 +0000, Tickettyboo
<ticke...@mail2oops.com> wrote:

>Crossposting 'can' be useful in certain circumstances, but also 'can'
>be used to propagate spam/viruses/troll posts etc, so I'd be wary of it
>(but there again I am wary of most things which are out of the ordinary
>and possibly harmful)

In the glory days of Usenet, crossposting became necessary because of
the proliferation of newsgroups, with people starting newsgroups with
ever-smaller differences between them, so the same message might be
on-topic in several newsgroups. If you were looking for expertise, you
would not know which group it could be found in.

For example there were originally soc.genealogy and alt.genealogy.
Eventually the soc.genealogy hierarchy became more organised, but
alt.genealogy is still there, and there are three or four ngs devoted
to English, British or UK genealogy, so in some instances it would be
logical to crosspost to all of them. But you would not crosspost to
rec.sport.tennis *unless* you were discussing a family that included
several champion tennis players.

Now that Usenet is less popular, it is sometimes necessary to
crosspost to several newsgroups to communicate with anyone at all. You
may have heard of one man, one vote. Now it's one man, one newsgroup.

Of course spammers have abused the cross-posting facility to
distribute spam, but that does not make crossposting wrong, it makews
spamming wrong. In Saudi Arabia, I believe, they still cur off the
hands of thieves. But forbidding crossposting is like cutting off
everyone's hands but because some people use their hands to steal. Why
deprive everyone of a useful facility just because some idiots misuse
it. It's not crossposting that is wrong, it's spamming.

And the original definition of spam in this context was crossposting
something to 20 or more newsgroups that was off-topic in all of them.
And most spammers nowadays do multiposting, which is almost always
bad.

So now that Usenet is so sparsely populated, crossposting as actually
important for keeping it alive and kepping it as a useful tool of
communication. So by all means crosspost, but don't spam.






--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <dhbn3cla66a5bus8j...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes

But: don't crosspost to UMRA. However appropriate, they REALLY don't
like it.
>
>
>
>
6
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The fifth bestselling detail of all time: the Ford Transit. (RT/C4 2015-5-24.)

[Steve Hayes]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 01:47:02 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
<G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>But: don't crosspost to UMRA. However appropriate, they REALLY don't
>like it.

Who are they?

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <misp3c9a1l440acem...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes

<haye...@telkomsa.net> writes:
>On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 01:47:02 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
><G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>But: don't crosspost to UMRA. However appropriate, they REALLY don't
>>like it.
>
>Who are they?
>

uk.media.radio.archers

>
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

... there were parts of Roman York that appear to be more ethnically mixed
than parts of modern York. - David Olusoga, RT 2016/11/5-11

[Steve Hayes]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 07:42:00 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

<G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>In message <misp3c9a1l440acem...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes
><haye...@telkomsa.net> writes:
>>On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 01:47:02 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
>><G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>>But: don't crosspost to UMRA. However appropriate, they REALLY don't
>>>like it.
>>
>>Who are they?
>>
>uk.media.radio.archers

Ah, not a genealogy group then.

And also one where I doubt that much crossposted from elsewhere would
be on-topic.

[Jenny M Benson]

On 29-Nov-16 10:57 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 07:42:00 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
> <G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> In message <misp3c9a1l440acem...@4ax.com>, Steve Hayes
>> <haye...@telkomsa.net> writes:
>>> On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 01:47:02 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
>>> <G6...@soft255.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> But: don't crosspost to UMRA. However appropriate, they REALLY don't
>>>> like it.
>>>
>>> Who are they?
>>>
>> uk.media.radio.archers
>
> Ah, not a genealogy group then.
>
> And also one where I doubt that much crossposted from elsewhere would
> be on-topic.
>
>

A lot of stuff is - strictly speaking - off topic in UMRA, but no one
really cares. It would be a very dull place without off-topic posts -
just a load of people discussing The Archers!

--
Jenny M Benson