3.8  CROSS-POSTING
 

Sometimes, you'll have an issue you think should be discussed in more 
than one Usenet newsgroup.  Rather than posting individual messages in 
each group, you can post the same message in several groups at once, 
through a process known as cross-posting. 

Say you want to start a discussion about the political ramifications of 
importing rare tropical fish from Brazil.  People who read rec.aquaria 
might have something to say. So might people who read 
alt.politics.animals and talk.politics.misc. 

Cross-posting is easy.  It also should mean that people on other systems 
who subscribe to several newsgroups will see your message only once, 
rather than several times -- news-reading software can cancel out the 
other copies once a person has read the message.  When you get ready to 
post a message (whether through Pnews for rn or the :post command in nn), 
you'll be asked in which newsgroups.  Type the names of the various 
groups, separated by a comma, but no space, for example: 
 
     rec.aquaria,alt.politics.animals,talk.politics.misc
 
and hit enter.  After answering the other questions (geographic 
distribution, etc.), the message will be posted in the various 
groups (unless one of the groups is moderated, in which case the 
message goes to the moderator, who decides whether to make it public). 
     
It's considered bad form to post to an excessive number of newsgroups, or 
inappropriate newsgroups.  Probably, you don't really have to post 
something in 20 different places.  And while you may think your 
particular political issue is vitally important to the fate of the world, 
chances are the readers of rec.arts.comics will not, or at least not 
important enough to impose on them.  You'll get a lot of nasty e-mail 
messages demanding you restrict your messages to the "appropriate" 
newsgroups.