Please stop complaining about "cross-posts"

[pmiguel]

I'm dismayed to see that some posters here have decided to chastise people for "cross-posting" here and in other forums. What possible harm could come from this?

The only explanation I've seen is that it somehow "wastes time".
Really? How? Just skip questions you've already read or answered on other forums.

--
Phillip

[sarvidsson]

One constructive way to comment on cross-posting is to suggest adding links to the other sites where the question was posted.

[GenoMax]

If the original poster receives a satisfactory answer in a different forum it would be useful if they came back here and linked to the site where they received an answer. This will provide "closure".

Having that cross-reference will save everyone time (people who ask questions and those who take the time to answer).

[pmiguel]

Okay, but I'm really trying to wrap my head around why anyone has a problem with "cross-posting". So it has to come down to my having a different viewpoint on the whole "asking a question/answering a question" process.
The impression I get is that those complaining about must have a highly structured attitude to that process. For example, someone posts :
"Hey, what is the recognition site for EcoRI?"
and it is answered on one site:
"GAATTC"
then on another site the same question has been posted. If someone answers "GAATTC" there, then that is a total waste of effort because the same question from the same person has been answered twice.

But people answer questions for many sorts of reasons. As long as the person answering the question on one site gets something out the interaction, what is the harm? No one is forcing you to answer it.

And, different forums will likely have different groups of people frequenting them. And people won't necessarily feel constrained as to just answering the question. Could be they will expand a bit. Maybe talk about how they used to isolate EcoRI themselves "back in the day" and the protocol they used to do it. Or maybe they will point out issues with EcoRI star activity that under certain conditions cause the enzyme to relax its recognition sequence to an extent.

All of which has a certain value to it, in my opinion. And if someone wants to take the time to post a question on multiple forums, that's just increasing the chance that such an event will occur.

--
Phillip

[maubp]

I regularly see the same questions posted on SeqAnswers, BioStars, StackExchange and/or the specific project mailing list almost simultaneously.

If they don't cross reference the posts, I do scold them. Open source project contributors are often answering support questions on their own time, and this generosity is wasted if the questioner already has an competent answer on a different forum.

If they do cross reference the posts, that is acceptable.

[dpryan]

I take the same stance as maubp and some of the others. Adding a link in a cross-post clears up all issues. I'm come at this more from the biostars perspective, where cross-posting is explicitly disallowed. The general idea being that if you don't mention that you've cross-posted and have already received an answer somewhere else, then you're just wasting the time the second person to answer. Of course providing links to the cross-posts allows people to just click over to check for answers and has the benefit that those with similar questions later can find them more easily.

[pmiguel]

I regularly see the same questions posted on SeqAnswers, BioStars, StackExchange and/or the specific project mailing list almost simultaneously.

If they don't cross reference the posts, I do scold them. Open source project contributors are often answering support questions on their own time, and this generosity is wasted if the questioner already has an competent answer on a different forum.

If they do cross reference the posts, that is acceptable.

I take the same stance as maubp and some of the others. Adding a link in a cross-post clears up all issues. I'm come at this more from the biostars perspective, where cross-posting is explicitly disallowed. The general idea being that if you don't mention that you've cross-posted and have already received an answer somewhere else, then you're just wasting the time the second person to answer. Of course providing links to the cross-posts allows people to just click over to check for answers and has the benefit that those with similar questions later can find them more easily.

As far as I'm concerned, these are just your preferences. I don't share them and take offense at your stating them as if they are law. To be frank your chastising people for cross-posting questions comes across as unfriendly.

I've explained above how I think crossposting could result in additional value. I don't think there is ever a single answer to any question. But that is my viewpoint and one you may not share. I only ask that you accept that others may not share your viewpoint.

--
Phillip

[dpryan]

As far as I'm concerned, these are just your preferences.

They certainly are just opinions here. Unlike biostars and stackexchange, this site has no policy on cross-posts last time I checked. Can't argue with you there.

I don't share them and take offense at your stating them as if they are law.

Fair enough.

I don't think there is ever a single answer to any question.

Let's not exaggerate.

[westerman]

I'm come at this more from the biostars perspective, where cross-posting is explicitly disallowed.

Where is this mentioned on Biostars? I don't find it in the FAQ nor in 'about'.

[dpryan]

Where is this mentioned on Biostars? I don't find it in the FAQ nor in 'about'.

Hmm, it seems to have gotten lost in the conversion to biostars2. In any case, we have a specific moderation option with a template for cross-posts.