Re: cross-posting

[Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM>]

LaVonna Funkhouser opines about cross-posting:

> However, if you post something to a public list (such as
> techwr-l, which has over 400 readers), then you should
> consider your words public.  The person who cross-posts
> should, as a courtesy, acknowledge the originator of the
> post.

Technology provides us with yet another example of how you can fall
victim to people with no scruples. And it also gives an excellent reason
to consider carefully what you write for public consumption.

In my own considered baby-boomer opinion, having the ability to write
for an audience like the subscribers to TECHWR-L is a high privelege
(and no, I'm not trying to be cloying or obsequious). An even higher
privelege is the ability to read the opinions of other professionals on
subjects related directly to my means of earning a living. This is very
heady material for me. I enjoy exercising this privelege immensely.

I also believe that exercising any privelege means that there is an
inherent corresponding responsibility to exercise it prudently. While I
would never think of using someone else's words in any context without
first at least asking, I also know that others may not feel quite so
constrained. My own contributions to lists and newsgroups reflect that
knowledge. I (try at least) never to write in any forum what I would be
ashamed of in any other forum (in full context, of course). While I
never expect that my words will appear elsewhere (where they shouldn't
appear at all), I try to write as though they might.

For the record, I do *not* like being quoted without attribution, out of
context, or being attributed as the author of text I did not write.
(Unless it's a best seller and I have a shot at royalties 8-).

But, I agree with the others who say that asking before including and
providing acknowlegement is common courtesy. The trouble, of course, is
that courtesy is increasingly less common these days. You hope it won't
happen to you, but you have to anticipate what would happen if it did -
every time you post.

*That's* too bad, isn't it?

|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer | "Hardcopy is the ultimate backup!" |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA|   -John Sanders                    |
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| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|