Cross Posting should be allowed

[chintan_virani]

Hold on....I know some of you may ask me to go through Rules of Engagement and there are obvious benefits of not allowing cross posting. I myself have used Abuse button number of times for people who cross post and moderators have sometimes locked them.

But in certain scenarios it makes sense:-

1. Assuming I am facing a issue in an ESS area, there is ERP-Employee Self Service and Portal forums.

2. I am developing a Web Dynpro Java Applciation which utilizes Web Services an d have an issue in WSDL configuration then it would make sense to post in Web Dynpro Java as well SOA forum

3. I am developing a Interactive Form in VC and having some issue. (A similar thread in Adobe Forums prompted to open this thread.). Should i open a thread in Adobe Forums or VC?

The reason is simple for cross posting - All forums have different set of users/contributors and when you are stuck somewhere in between, you want to maximize your chance of any help from all corners.

Isn't it why people log in SCN? Get help and resolve issues. What are your thoughts?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

>

> The reason is simple for cross posting - All forums have different set of users/contributors and when you are stuck somewhere in between, you want to maximize your chance of any help from all corners.

You can get into the situation where two or more groups of people are working on the same problem without knowing about each other. This may be a boon to the person asking tghe question, but would be annoying to those who try to help.

But making a single thread and its replies visible in more than one forum makes sense.

Rob

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

As alternate to tags, the ability to mirror the same (thread ID) to multiple forums is something often suggested already, for those which are cross-functional or component issues.

Unfortunately many cross-posted threads are just lazy and irrespectfull to the other forum members, but it is not mostly this way anymore. In some cases I really can even understand the cross-post even.

But 2 or more seperate and neglected threads is not a solution.

Cheers,

Julius

[chintan_virani]

Not answered completely but looks like without tagging there are "awkward" work arounds which are acceptable solutions. Hence closing it.

[OttoGold]

+1 for the workaround, I have done it this way several times. Sometimes I link the old thread asking about the same together. If nother guy will bother to search to spare him a minute. Otto

[Former Member]

Until we get a improved system with [tagging|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28metadata%29] (as mentioned already by Thomas), let's think what we can do with the current SCN forums. I agree that there are definitely cases where multiple forum categories are applicable. However, as Rob pointed already out, the real problem with cross-postings is that you get two more or less independent threads (even if cross-referenced) with people wasting their valuable time (either because they don't know about the other ones or it's hard to make sense out of the answers posted to those multiple threads).

Thus my general recommendation would be the following:

<ol>

<li>Start with one thread in the most promising and applicable forum.</li>

<li>If after some time (I'd say at least a day, probably more) the thread doesn't produce anything useful, create a new thread in the next forum referencing the old one.</li>

<li>Now add in your original thread a link to the new one and mark the original one as answered.</li>

</ol>

It's still kind of awkward, because one cannot close a thread without marking it as answered (so we put in some kind of future debt, hoping that the other thread will get an answer). Having moderators lock the thread is in my opinion not feasible, because we shouldn't bother them with silly work like this (I'm sure they are already overloaded with their work as is). As I don't really think the forums are currently a great knowledge base, I think it's acceptable to close the old thread by marking it as answered (even though it or the new thread might never be answered).

In a way this approach is like bumping your thread and pitching it possibly to a different audience. When used with great care (and I mean that!), I think this is acceptable. Concurrent active cross-postings in different forums are in my opinion not acceptable.

Cheers, harald

[Former Member]

I've done it this way before Harald. I think it is the "accepted" way now, but awkward.

Another thing to do is press the abuse button and ask the moderators to move it to a different forum.

Rob

[ThomasZloch]

With two or more identical posts in separate forums, I see these problems:

- people trying to help are not aware of the progress in the other threads, will spend time "reinventing the wheel" or give conflicting advice

- people who use the search might find conflicting advice for identical questions

- OP has more work in following up, many OPs can't even close their single posts properly

- it increases the redundancy that we're actually trying to reduce

I acknowledge the "grey area" problem, once again, tags would be a solution... (see the "forum improvements" thread).

Thomas

[Lakshmipathi]

From my experience, only a few questions would be like what you had narrated in which case, yes I do agree that the member can cross post. But in most of the cases, it is not so.

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi