How to Cross-Post ??

M

monir

I tried few times to start a new thread in MS Excel DG and used the "Advanced
Options" to cross-post the same question to other relevant discussion groups.
It hasn't worked for me so far, since the thread didn't show there!

Suppose the other DG has the full address:
http://www.johnsmith.com/forum/....
How would you enter the address ??
Should I remove the http://www. from the address ??

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
J

joeu2004

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Some might say that the question is not so much "how to crosspost?",
but whether to crosspost in the first place?

A true crossposting results in a single article with multiple group
names in the Newsgroup header record. Responses to one copy of the
article is automagically crossposted to the other articles. No harm
in that, IMHO.

But some news interfaces (or news servers?) spit this into separate
articles. Consequently, responses to one copy of the article are not
seen in the "crossposted" copies. This is annoying at best, confusing
at worst. For that reason, crossposting is generally deprecated.

With respect to the MS Excel news groups, generally the same people
(who might have knowledgable responses anyway) read all of them -- at
least the major ones with lots of traffic. So it should be sufficient
to pick just one. The one you picked for this thread is a good
choice.


----- original posting -----
 
M

monir

joeu2004;

Thank you for your reply and comments.

It's very rare (if at all) one sees replies from MrExcel MVP, for example,
posted in MS Excel news group!
In one of my earlier posts, I made ref. to a reply in another DG, for which
the MVP replied: "I only respond to questions posted in this forum".

That left me with the impression that some experts are dedicated to one news
group than another, and it's better in the future to cross-post for maximum
exposure.

Out of curiosity, and even if it's not necessary to do so based on your
comments, how would you enter (under "Advanced Options") the full address of,
say : http://www.johnsmith.com/forum/.....
Would you type it as shown or remove the http:// ??

Regards.
 
J

joeu2004

It's very rare (if at all) one sees replies from MrExcel MVP, for example,
posted in MS Excel news group!

If you are referring to the website mrexcel.com, well yeah! I
wouldn't be surprised if it does not use the NNTP protocol at all. I
believe it is an ad hoc private "discussion group" (forum), not a
public newsgroup. I don't know anything it or its credibility.
In one of my earlier posts, I made ref. to a reply in another DG, for which
the MVP replied: "I only respond to questions posted in this forum".

Without specifcs (e.g. a URL link that points to the specific reply in
a public newsgroup), it is difficult for me to comment. But I believe
that any Excel MVP looks at all of the following Excel newsgroups with
equal frequency (where "m.p.e" is shorthand for
microsoft.public.excel): m.p.e, m.p.e.misc and
m.p.e.worksheet.functions.

There might be specialist in, say, Excel Chart who primarily
participate in m.p.e.charting. But I would be surprised if they do
not also look at m.p.e.misc, at least.
Out of curiosity, and even if it's not necessary to do so based on your
comments, how would you enter (under "Advanced Options") the full
address of, say :http://www.johnsmith.com/forum/.....
Would you type it as shown or remove the http:// ??

That question is specific to the news reader interface that you use.
I don't believe I use the same one.

Since you use the term DG ("discussion group") and your email address
is "@discussions.microsoft.com", I suspect you are referring to the
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups website, which you
might access directly or indirectly (e.g. using Outlook or Outlook
Express).

When I click on "Advance Options" in the window for posting a new
question, the instructions for the crossposting field say: "use the
full USENET designation". I can only guess that they mean, for
example, microsoft.public.excel.misc, the actual public newsgroup name
for the MS discussion group called "Excel General Questions".

(Just tried it and, yes, that seems to be the case.)

"How would you know that?", you might ask. I don't know the official
method. I simply opened a posting in the interesting MS DG and look
at the "In:" field.

But again, beware: I don't know if that truly crossposts, or if that
results in duplicate postings.

(Just tried it and, yes, it seems to truly crosspost.)

Moreover, if you are indeed using the MS discussion groups, be advised
that my experience has been that postings (at least initial postings
of a thread) are not always pushed out to the rest of the Usenet
world. At least, I often fail to see them in Google Groups, no matter
how long I wait. (A delay is common.)

In fact, I wonder if that is what Excel MVP was referring to
implicitly. He/she might not have seen something that you posted
using MS "communities/newsgroups".
 
M

monir

joeu2004;

Generally I don't make distinction between discussion groups, forums, news
group, Google groups, usenets, etc. I refer to them collectively as
discussion groups (or DGs).
I'm sure each was designed, and is monitored, controlled and (possibly)
moderated differently.

My inquiry is really a simple one. Whoever developed and is in-charge of
the OnLine MS Communities should at least explain what s/he means by "use the
full USENET designation" under "Advanced Options", provides a sample address,
and clearly states if the option applies ONLY to MS Communities.

I'm inclined to follow your earlier suggestion of picking just one (this
one) and forget about cross-posting all together!

Regards.
 
B

Bruce Sinclair

joeu2004;

Generally I don't make distinction between discussion groups, forums, news
group, Google groups, usenets, etc. I refer to them collectively as
discussion groups (or DGs).
I'm sure each was designed, and is monitored, controlled and (possibly)
moderated differently.

You may not make such a distinction, but it certainly exists. :)
News groups are quite a different beast to forums. Knowing how they work
might help you to work out the easiest way to do what you want ? :)
My inquiry is really a simple one. Whoever developed and is in-charge of
the OnLine MS Communities should at least explain what s/he means by "use the
full USENET designation" under "Advanced Options", provides a sample address,
and clearly states if the option applies ONLY to MS Communities.

News groups are many and varied. The MS groups have some kind of connection
to "real" newsgroups ... I suspect by design. I suspect that items posted
from MS groups show in the "from" feild something like this :::
?Utf-8?B?bW9uaXI=?= <actual user>

That said, I admit I don't really understand it, as real news groups work
fine for me. :)
I'm inclined to follow your earlier suggestion of picking just one (this
one) and forget about cross-posting all together!

An excellent inclination. Go with it. :) :)
 

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