Thread: God hates cross-posters!

Originally Posted by Yarin

If I were to cross-forum post (which I have done a couple times in the past, even here on CBoard!), and I get a satisfactory answer on one board, I let the ppl on the other board know that I have my answer now, ty for their time. This completely nullifies practically every argument against cross-forum posting that I've heard yet.

... if you are online and immediately aware of the satisfactory reply. So no, the "completely nullifies" claim is grossly exaggerated,

Originally Posted by Yarin

*) Ppl who argue against it seem to be self-absorbed. Forgive the insult, but think about it. The only reason you don't like it is because _you_ are the only one who doesn't benefit from it / got to be the one who gave the accepted answer / got a ty / whatever.

Your reasoning is flawed because your assumptions are flawed ("only reason", "only one"), but generally, I agree: the possibility of receiving recognition is a powerful motivation to provide help. People are not always, perhaps even rarely, altruistic. So what?

Originally Posted by Yarin

*) Posting links to the other forums you've posted it on is actually very bad. It lets everyone else know that other ppl elsewhere are reading it, too. So, why would I answer, if someone else (at a different place that I'm probably too lazy to check out) will just answer it. It hurts your chances of a response. Which, again, hurts everyone, including googlers.

You have completely ignored the recommendation by several people in this thread to post consecutively. Furthermore, if you are too lazy to check, then that's your problem: the same argument you raise about having "already dedicated your time here" applies.

Originally Posted by laserlight

You have completely ignored the recommendation by several people in this thread to post consecutively.

Recommending something is fine; making it a "my way or the highway" law is just about power.

Originally Posted by laserlight

I don't know whether it is moral or immoral, but I think that working "consecutively" is sensible.

I think working concurrently is sensible too. For example, if I go into a library to do research, I do not pull one book off the shelf, take it to a desk, get what I want out of it, put it back and take another. I get a bunch of books and start examining them concurrently. On the surface, this might seem inconsiderate, since you are "hogging" more than one book. However, exactly zero librarians in the world believe that, which is why you can even withdraw more than one title at a time! Isn't that selfish considering you can only really be reading one at any given point in time? You should take your book home, get your info out of it, then bring it back and take another!

Another analogy would be fishing. If I have three poles, why not put three lines in the water concurrently. Of course, this requires more vigilance and skill on behalf of the fisher, which I think is true of forum use and cross posting.

If you are going to distinguish "concurrent" vs. "consecutive", how will you do it?

Originally Posted by grumpy

I would tend to encourage people to try posting on one site first, and then wait for 48 hours or so before posting.

48 hours?!!?? Be honest and tell me who does that. Why not a week? Maybe 90 days? In fact, perhaps once per annum is enough for one question. You should have to wait until next year, and we should have international internet cops to make sure of it.

If I post something on an active forum and I do not receive a satisfactory reply in 2 hours, I absolutely promise I will start asking around somewhere else (be it a mailing list or another forum or whatever), and I very much doubt I am unusual in that sense. But isn't that essentially indistinguishable from simultaneous cross-posting?

If you think I am wrong for doing so, you are, unequivocally, someone who wants to prevent and restrict the dissemination of knowledge, not someone who is "protecting it responsibly" and as such, IMO, should certainly not be moderating internet forums. You should lobby to have them criminalized instead if that's your attitude.

Point being, I don't see how you can define a threshold waiting time that will be useful in distinguishing people who work "consecutively, as is sensible" from people who cross-post simultaneously, and it is assbackward to make everyone else pay because a few people will abuse the system.

Originally Posted by MK27

...
If I post something on an active forum and I do not receive a satisfactory reply in 2 hours, I absolutely promise I will start asking around somewhere else (be it a mailing list or another forum or whatever), and I very much doubt I am unusual in that sense. But isn't that essentially indistinguishable from simultaneous cross-posting?
...

Just remember that in some forums, it typically takes a day to get a reply to a thread. Cboard is a hyper active forum as I'd like to call it. You can usually get answers in under an hour or less.

So to be clear, the cross posting pepole have a problem against is when they do it on multiple forums at once?
What if they word it deferent each time, is that deferent? Or is the fact that they don't "trust" your advice what makes pepole mad?

How dose it waste your time? Do you not post if someone already post an answer? What if after they post it online and they find the answer in a book or soemthing, is that bad it waste your time still?

Why is it a bad thing to post something in two forums, you will get 2 times the answers, and sometimes yeah it will be the "same" but you know what, go on any forum and look at it, must pepole post "I agree with (enter name here) and then post their own wording of the problem, your getting 6 deferent wordings of the same thing.

For proof go look at my "help with this code" post in C++ I had four of all say I needed == instead of =, and need to put no in "no". This happens ALL the time on all forums, did they add much besides the fact that my spelling and grammar stink? Not really, thats not to say I don't value the help, I'm grateful for it, but the fact remains none of them add much to it besides awning the problem the same way in deferent words, even with seeing the other posts they are similar they all said , = is for assigns and == means "equal" and no needs to be "no".

Was mine trivial? Sure, yeah it was, but as been said what is trivial if you don't know it? Did I know the difference between = and ==? Yes, I've used it on a few other programs, I just never saw it while proof reading the code.

But thats not to say I'm saying cross posting is bad or not, in fact, I'm unsure as to which side I'm on. On one hand I see it like this, its like looking for a job, its okay to send out 4 defreint aplcations to defreint jobs, but it is polite to let them know when you get the job. Then there is the its also polite to tell them upfront "I'm lookign at other jobs to". So I have mixed feelings, I would not say its "wrong" or should be aginst the rules, but maybe its not polite, I might go with that but as I said its really a hard thing to pick a side.

Originally Posted by Yarin

Posting links to the other forums you've posted it on is actually very bad. [...] Which, again, hurts everyone, including googlers.

This is just a specious argument. I don't think google is this inefficient. I've never personally had to go one or two links deep to read anything google found. Google spiders already find the key words in the original context.

Also I don't care about how people search the internet, as long as they do.

I'm amazed that this thread has gone so long, even considering quzah's trolling efforts. Here's an idea for MK27 and those who agree with him: mind your own damn business.

Your arguments ultimately boil down to "it doesn't hurt anyone", but that argument goes both ways. Nobody is hurt by cross posting? Well, nobody is hurt by negative reactions to cross posting either, because the cross poster will still get help from another person or on another forum.

This whole argument is pointless, move along.

kthxbye

/thread

Originally Posted by Prelude

I'm amazed that this thread has gone so long, even considering quzah's trolling efforts.

Ah yes, the old "I don't agree with him so he's trolling" line.

Originally Posted by Prelude

Here's an idea for MK27 and those who agree with him: mind your own damn business.

Your arguments ultimately boil down to "it doesn't hurt anyone", but that argument goes both ways. Nobody is hurt by cross posting? Well, nobody is hurt by negative reactions to cross posting either, because the cross poster will still get help from another person or on another forum.

This whole argument is pointless, move along.

kthxbye

/thread

Translation: This thread is about to be locked, because people are talking on message board, and we can't have that. We're in the general forum FFS.


Quzah.

Originally Posted by Prelude

Here's an idea for MK27 and those who agree with him: mind your own damn business.

Hmm... that's curious. I think that's precisely what they are saying you should do more. Isn't moderating all about minding other people's business?

Hmm... that's curious. I think that's precisely what they are saying you should do more. Isn't moderating all about minding other people's business?

I don't follow, could you elaborate? In the matter of cross posters, it's them (MK27 et al.) who decided to raise a stink. Up until then I was minding my own business.

Originally Posted by Prelude

I don't follow, could you elaborate?

Sure.

Originally Posted by Prelude

In the matter of cross posters, it's them (MK27 et al.) who decided to raise a stink.

The whole thread is about opinion and reasons for it.

Originally Posted by Prelude

Up until then I was minding my own business.

So why did you stop minding your own business? Were you getting PMs asking you to lock the thread? Otherwise, I don't feel it's your decision to show up and decide everyone should shut up:

Originally Posted by Prelude

This whole argument is pointless, move along.

kthxbye

/thread

It's not your place to decide we should stop talking about a subject. It's not your place to decide a thread is over. That's exactly what they were talking about. Forum mods showing up being dbags for no real reason. There's no reason this thread should end, just because YOU decide it.


Quzah.

Originally Posted by Prelude

I don't follow, could you elaborate? In the matter of cross posters, it's them (MK27 et al.) who decided to raise a stink. Up until then I was minding my own business.

Just saying that moderation implies you take action against or in favor of someone or a group of someones, impacting them in some way. For all that matters you have to mind other people's businesses if you are going to moderate. It's however being argued by some (me included, but on a different matter) that moderators on CBoard should probably mind other people's business less. Forum cross-posting being one of the examples where moderator action isn't welcomed, as seen by some.

Originally Posted by VirtualAce

So in light of all the complaints about this or that all of us must be doing something right to maintain this level of activity.

Indeed we are. But I don't think that by itself removes any space for criticism. Although, to be frank, I think we long went past any accepted level of criticism and the whole thing is just being made to look like this is a terrible place to be. I think that's what prelude meant with the "troll" thing. Which, I'm afraid, she's looking like she's right.

Just saying that moderation implies you take action against or in favor of someone or a group of someones, impacting them in some way. For all that matters you have to mind other people's businesses if you are going to moderate. It's however being argued by some (me included, but on a different matter) that moderators on CBoard should probably mind other people's business less. Forum cross-posting being one of the examples where moderator action isn't welcomed, as seen by some.

I understand now. I was confused because your point doesn't apply to me. Not only do I not moderate cross posters, my moderation style is to let the community police itself until a heavier hand is clearly needed.

So why did you stop minding your own business?

Someone started to get up in my business. This typically prompts a response, as I'm sure you're aware.

There's no reason this thread should end, just because YOU decide it.

You seem distraught by my choice of "/thread", which is the equivalent of "QED". Am I not allowed to post in threads because I'm a moderator? By the way, I notice that this thread is still open, which means all you're doing right now is fear mongering.

Originally Posted by Prelude

I'm amazed that this thread has gone so long, even considering quzah's trolling efforts. Here's an idea for MK27 and those who agree with him: mind your own damn business.

Your arguments ultimately boil down to "it doesn't hurt anyone", but that argument goes both ways. Nobody is hurt by cross posting? Well, nobody is hurt by negative reactions to cross posting either, because the cross poster will still get help from another person or on another forum.

This whole argument is pointless, move along.

kthxbye

/thread

I thought that was the whole reason to have a GD forum, for pointless arguments. :randomsmileythatresultsinanotherthreadaboutsmiley s: