XPost: rec.games.video.nintendo, alt.games.video.sega-dreamcast   
   From: miles@gnu.org   
      
   Scott H  writes:   
   >> No.  There are many valid uses of crossposts, and it's both more   
   >> efficient and much more user-friendly than simply posting multiple   
   >> times.   
   >   
   >      It may be useful, but it has been considered a violation of   
   > netiquette since the advent of Usenet.   
      
   No it's not (and has never been) "considered a violation of netiquette"   
   to crosspost.  Improper use of crossposting (e.g. trolling, spamming,   
   posting your article to every single group) surely is, but proper use is   
   not.   
      
   There are of course various nuances of netiquette with regard to   
   crossposting -- e.g., some people hold that one must always use   
   "followup-to" (which I think is stupid), and I've seen things like   
   "never crosspost within a single topic hierarchy" (never wanted to, so I   
   dunno), but in general netiquette focuses on discouraging abuses of   
   crossposting, not its use.   
      
   > Surely if you have a topic that you want multiple groups of people to   
   > take the time to address, you should take the time to modify the post   
   > to suit each audience.   
      
   In the vast majority of cases, that isn't useful, as long as one simply   
   remembers that one is posting to multiple groups (e.g. avoid making   
   references to "this group") -- and given the numerous downsides of   
   "multiple posting" compared to crossposting, would indeed usually be a   
   bad thing to do.   
      
   -Miles   
      
   --   
   "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that   
    you do it."  Mahatma Gandhi   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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