There might be times when you are inclined to post a question not only at
JavaRanch, but also at some other site. This is defined as "cross-posting".
When you decide to do so, please keep in mind that many sites consider this to be of bad form. Some sites may even consider this practice as spamming. For
JavaRanch, this practice is allowed, but with some limitations.
This practice may not be in the interests of the ranchers who might be responding to your posts. Many folks may find that they have wasted their time and effort. You certainly don't want to annoy those you want to help you, so you might want to make the experience as painless as possible.
The best way to do something like this (without ticking people off) would be to let people know upfront that the crossposting is occurring. This makes the most sense if there's a respectable delay between posting in one forum and another, e.g:
"I posted this question the other day in SomeOtherForum.com [link], but wasn't able to get a good answer, so now I'm asking here..."
A responsible internet citizen might also post a followup in SomeOtherForum.com letting people there know that the topic is now cross-posted, and later again, if a better answer is found (see note 1).
...
Note 1: Unlike the other posting guidelines on the ranch, this recommendation may be affected by the rules of the external (cross-posted) forum. Ranchers should be aware that the JavaRanch policy of allowing cross-posting is comparatively lenient. Please confirm that cross-posting is also allowed on the other forum(s).
Note 2: This policy can be considered a compromise. Cross posting is very popular among certain users, yet, it also has a somewhat bad reputation on the internet. Hopefully, with this policy, cross posting can be done, and in a way that mitigates many "not nice" discussions.