Crossposting

Crossposting is the act of posting verbatim copies of one message on multiple message centers, without customising each copy to suit the audience or forum.

The practice likely originated on Usenet newsgroups where individuals seeking replies, an answer to a technical question perhaps, would post the query to related newsgroups. Most Usenet software would store the article only once, with symbolic links to all the other locations.

Presently, the crossposting can mean posting verbatim text to a number of blogs, sites like Slashdot, or carbon copying the message to a number of mailing lists.

Crossposting is a technique used in Astroturfing to generate the appearance of wide-spread support.

A second meaning has evolved on some internet message boards. Crossposting (also known as x-posting) occurs when two persons post responses to the same message thread at almost the same time, often rendering the slightly later post irrelevant, funny, meaningless or inappropriate.