Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!bbn!aoa!carl From: carl@aoa.UUCP (Carl Witthoft) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: cross posting Message-ID: <880@aoa.UUCP> Date: 18 Aug 89 11:53:23 GMT References: <2989@blake.acs.washington.edu> <1989Jul28.223042.4488@twwells.com> <6554@bunker.UUCP> <1055@clyde.Concordia.CA> <424@nixpbe.UUCP> <1202@abaa.UUCP> Reply-To: carl@aoa (Carl Witthoft) Distribution: news.newusers.questions Organization: Adaptive Optics assoc., Cambridge, Ma Lines: 30 In article <1202@abaa.UUCP> esker@mars.UUCP (Lawrence Esker) writes: >In article <424@nixpbe.UUCP> bnews@nixpbe.UUCP (Martin Boening) writes: >>timl@maxwell.Concordia.CA ( TIM LAPIN ) writes: >>> How do you cross post? >>Simple answer. You don't, if it isn't absolutely necessary. If it is >And why not? If a topic relates to more than one subject, it should be cross >posted. It does not use extra bandwidth. It invites both sides of an issue >to interact instead of all these one sided slams that we get. This is a >public network, not a group of independent newsgroup cliques. Two problems: the main one is that NO-ONE EVER looks at the post list when following up, so that followups go all over the newsgroups forever and ever. This is especially bad when talk.bizarre is one of the groups... you never get the garbage out of the other groups. In general, mixing sci.* and/or misc.* with any soc.* tends to mix rational ( you hope :=( ), personal, and outrageous flammatory stuff into a useless pile of noise. Personnaly, I'd vote for a mod to rn which makes the default Followup-to line contain ONLY the group presently being read, so that it takes active effort to inundate all the other groups with responses. Oh, yes, the other problem: cross-posts to 75 groups because the poster either isn't sure what group is appropriate or wants to be sure that EVERYONE who might care gets to read his words of wonder. -- Alix' Dad ( Carl Witthoft @ Adaptive Optics Associates) {harvard,ima}!bbn!aoa!carl 54 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,MA 02140 617-864-0201 "disclaimer? I'm not a doctor, but I do have a Master's Degree in Science!"