Abuse of follow-up (was: Dialog, was Cross posting)

In article news:<Xns99E3C6A1F6BB9MyBigKitty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Ohmster
wrote:
There is nothing wrong with crossposting, especially if you set a
followup-to group, ...

I disagree about the followup-to.

Most modern newsreaders can recognize cross-posted messages and display
them in only one of the groups; so there's no benefit in restricting
the discussion following the initial post to just one group. Nobody
using a decent newsreader will see it more than once anyway.

If a user crossposts a message to two groups -- a, and b -- and sets a
followup to (say) group b anyone who read the first message in group a
and does not follow group b will not see the replies without making a
special effort. This limits the audience for the thread unnecessarily.
Anyone who read the first message in group a and DOES follow group b
will see the discussion broken between two threads, which is an
inconvenience.

If the original post was on-topic in both/all groups then the ensuing
discussion (barring thread drift) will also be on-topic in all three
groups, and should be posted to all three groups. With a decent
newsreader nobody will see it more than once, but everyone who does see
it will see all of it, and all of it will be in the same place.

The proper use of follow-ups is to move a thread from one group to
another when thread drift makes that thread off-topic for the first
group and the participants wish to continue the discussion in a more
appropriate place.
--
Cheers,
Daniel.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Abuse of follow-up
    ... followup-to group, ... ... If a user crossposts a message to two groups -- a, and b -- and sets a followup to group b anyone who read the first message in group a and does not follow group b will not see the replies without making a special effort. ... If the original post was on-topic in both/all groups then the ensuing discussion (barring thread drift) will also be on-topic in all three groups, and should be posted to all three groups. ... With a decent newsreader nobody will see it more than once, but everyone who does see it will see all of it, and all of it will be in the same place. ...
    (news.software.readers)
  • Re: Abuse of follow-up (was: Dialog, was Cross posting)
    ... I disagree about the followup-to. ... using a decent newsreader will see it more than once anyway. ... Anyone who read the first message in group a and DOES follow group b ... ~Ohmster | ohmster /a/t/ ohmster dot com ...
    (news.software.readers)
  • Re: Abuse of follow-up (was: Dialog, was Cross posting)
    ... I disagree about the followup-to. ... using a decent newsreader will see it more than once anyway. ... Anyone who read the first message in group a and DOES follow group b ... discussion (barring thread drift) will also be on-topic in all three ...
    (news.software.readers)
  • Re: Nvidia video driver question?
    ... but the newsgroup you set for follow-up does not exist on ... > The only reason you saw my reply is after the post failure I hand-edited ... I hadn't set a 'followup-to' header. ... My newsreader, PAN, asks whether I want to 'send anyway?' ...
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