Crossposting on Dreamwidth
Oct. 5th, 2024 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
newcomersThis discussion about crossposting is mostly a repetition of "Blogging Questionnaire Day 6: Crossposting" from Three Weeks for Dreamwidth 2022. I have added a few new bits for the current context.
What is crossposting?
Crossposting involves sharing the same content in more than one place. That might be your blog on Dreamwidth and your blog on another platform, different communities on Dreamwidth, totally different types of social media like Facebook and Twitter, etc. The content may be identical (like if you're pasting an event announcement in several relevant Dreamwidth communities), slightly edited for relevance (like highlighting why you're posting a thing as it touches on each community's theme), or adapted to the features of a particular site (which may use images or tags differently). Dreamwidth does have an automatic crossposting feature, but it only works for other platforms, not for different blogs or communities inside Dreamwidth itself. Therefore crossposting within Dreamwidth has to be done manually: you copy the title and text into a new post window for another blog or community.
Crossposting Netiquette and Techniques
I encourage crossposting as a way to make connections, boost activity, and save energy. Too much crossposting can get repetitive, though. So let's look at some principles ...
* Crossposting helps communities maintain activity so people don't give up on them. It raises the number of people who see important material. It reduces the effort required, because setting up one post can activate more than one community. This makes more people inclined to do it, which is a good thing because it keeps communities and platforms alive.
* Posting the same thing in totally different platforms (e.g. Dreamwidth and Weebly) is usually fine because there is little if any overlap. Archive sites like AO3 are usually fine even if they are frequented by the same readers, because their purpose is to save things while Dreamwidth is often just about telling folks where the things are.
* Posting the same thing in your blog and one other community on Dreamwidth is usually fine, because again, the overlap is low.
* If you post the same thing in multiple communities which are not related (e.g. pictures of your garden ingardening and in glimpseatmyday) then again, the overlap is low.
* Posting the same thing in multiple related communities (e.g.marvel_fanworks and darcy_loki) means many of the same people will see it repeatedly, which may get annoying. However, this is common in certain cases such as event announcements where the goal is to ensure that all interested parties see it.
* When posting about the same thing to different communities, it often helps to edit the content slightly to emphasize its connection with each community. For instance, you might put a photo of flowers first ingardening and a rabbit first in common_nature. If you have a batch of similar posts, like a set of photos from your yard, then you might post just the most relevant one to each of several different communities, perhaps with a link back to the rest of your set in case anyone wants to see more.
* The lower traffic a community has, the less picky it should be about posting. Some content is better than no content, as long as it is at least vaguely related to the topic, because without traffic people will abandon the community. In this environment, even repetitive crossposting may be tolerated.
* The higher traffic a community has, the more picky it should be about posting. Signal to noise ratio becomes more important the busier it gets. Too busy, and people feel overwhelmed so they quit reading. In this environment, people may discourage or ban crossposting. Another alternative is to split the community into separate subtopics, which is why the most popular things typically have several communities each covering a different aspect. For instance,marvel_fanworks spans all fanart, fanfic, etc. for all Marvelverse characters and media; cap_ironman focuses on relationships between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in any media; and xmen_icons specializes in tiny art of any X-men.
* If there are two similar, active communities that you like both of, consider alternating between them. My pairs includecommon_nature and gardening, books and book_love, and recipecommunity and creative_cooks.
* Communities on the same topic may take steps to distinguish themselves. For example,![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
dw_community_promo is only for promoting communities, while promoting is for everything else like commissions or fanfic journals. This may make it inappropriate to crosspost due to differing guidelines, so check before you crosspost.
* Community organizers can help by clearly indicating in their guidelines whether crossposting is welcome, and if so, what kinds. Allowing crossposts can get you more activity from people who are already writing about what your community features and wouldn't mind copying it there. Requiring all unique content can discourage posting -- which may be what you want if you're pushing the upper limit of tolerable traffic. Individual bloggers may also have a crosspost policy. Look for this information in a personal or community profile, sticky post, or blanket statement.
Crossposting vs. Reblogging
Crossposting performs some of the same functions as reblogging. It copies and spreads the same information over a wider range so that more people can see it. Dreamwidth does have an automatic crossposting feature, but it only works for other platforms, not for different blogs or communities inside Dreamwidth itself. Therefore crossposting within Dreamwidth has to be done manually: you copy the title and text into a new post window for another blog or community.
Crossposting differs from reblogging in a variety of ways. It's not automatic within Dreamwidth. This platform doesn't have the same kind of tracking that some other social networks do, where if someone reblogs your post, then you get credit for that and lots of reblogging makes your own blog more popular as a result.
You can crosspost your own work to multiple locations, as long as you don't do it so much that it irritates people, which could get you banned from some communities. Copying other people's posts without permission is generally considered bad netiquette here, even though it is the norm on some other platforms that rely a lot on reblogging.
Some Dreamwidth posts do say "please forward / link widely" or otherwise indicate that this is something folks are welcome to reblog and/or link to. For example, I have 3 recurring posts in my Wednesday rotation (Good News, Hard Things, and Cuddle Party), and the Recurring Posts entry says that folks can copy those. So for Cohost refugees who miss the reblogging option, watch for things like that where people state that reblogging a piece is okay.
Perhaps a Reblogging tag and interest would be helpful. That way, people who are into it -- and that's likely to be a lot of Tumblr users as well as Cohost refugees -- could easily find each other and rebloggable material to share. It could be made to work similarly to a blanket statement for podcast permissions, which is popular; so you could also put this information in your blanket statement.
Alternatively, you could regularly post a list of links labeled "Things I Would Totally Reblog If Reblogging Worked on Dreamwidth." And then you make that link list rebloggable with a permission statement at the end of it! \o/ You'd still have to do your reblogging manually on Dreamwidth -- which could be made easier with a textbox for the code -- but it could be done among consenting users. Just write "Here is a textbox of the code so you can copy this content to your own blog if you wish" the way people sometimes do with friending memes or event announcements.
If you want to spread material, especially if you run a community or you know of a community that welcomes that kind of content, you can just ask the original author to crosspost their piece there. It's not exactly the same method as reblogging, but it achieves the same end result of duplicating content on multiple pages.
See also:
"Helpful Tips for Former Cohost Users (like myself)" byonlyknownothing
"to fill void of reblogs - for cohost and other microblog platform newcomers" bykossai
What is crossposting?
Crossposting involves sharing the same content in more than one place. That might be your blog on Dreamwidth and your blog on another platform, different communities on Dreamwidth, totally different types of social media like Facebook and Twitter, etc. The content may be identical (like if you're pasting an event announcement in several relevant Dreamwidth communities), slightly edited for relevance (like highlighting why you're posting a thing as it touches on each community's theme), or adapted to the features of a particular site (which may use images or tags differently). Dreamwidth does have an automatic crossposting feature, but it only works for other platforms, not for different blogs or communities inside Dreamwidth itself. Therefore crossposting within Dreamwidth has to be done manually: you copy the title and text into a new post window for another blog or community.
Crossposting Netiquette and Techniques
I encourage crossposting as a way to make connections, boost activity, and save energy. Too much crossposting can get repetitive, though. So let's look at some principles ...
* Crossposting helps communities maintain activity so people don't give up on them. It raises the number of people who see important material. It reduces the effort required, because setting up one post can activate more than one community. This makes more people inclined to do it, which is a good thing because it keeps communities and platforms alive.
* Posting the same thing in totally different platforms (e.g. Dreamwidth and Weebly) is usually fine because there is little if any overlap. Archive sites like AO3 are usually fine even if they are frequented by the same readers, because their purpose is to save things while Dreamwidth is often just about telling folks where the things are.
* Posting the same thing in your blog and one other community on Dreamwidth is usually fine, because again, the overlap is low.
* If you post the same thing in multiple communities which are not related (e.g. pictures of your garden in
gardening and in glimpseatmyday) then again, the overlap is low.* Posting the same thing in multiple related communities (e.g.
marvel_fanworks and darcy_loki) means many of the same people will see it repeatedly, which may get annoying. However, this is common in certain cases such as event announcements where the goal is to ensure that all interested parties see it.* When posting about the same thing to different communities, it often helps to edit the content slightly to emphasize its connection with each community. For instance, you might put a photo of flowers first in
gardening and a rabbit first in common_nature. If you have a batch of similar posts, like a set of photos from your yard, then you might post just the most relevant one to each of several different communities, perhaps with a link back to the rest of your set in case anyone wants to see more.* The lower traffic a community has, the less picky it should be about posting. Some content is better than no content, as long as it is at least vaguely related to the topic, because without traffic people will abandon the community. In this environment, even repetitive crossposting may be tolerated.
* The higher traffic a community has, the more picky it should be about posting. Signal to noise ratio becomes more important the busier it gets. Too busy, and people feel overwhelmed so they quit reading. In this environment, people may discourage or ban crossposting. Another alternative is to split the community into separate subtopics, which is why the most popular things typically have several communities each covering a different aspect. For instance,
marvel_fanworks spans all fanart, fanfic, etc. for all Marvelverse characters and media; cap_ironman focuses on relationships between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in any media; and xmen_icons specializes in tiny art of any X-men.* If there are two similar, active communities that you like both of, consider alternating between them. My pairs include
common_nature and gardening, books and book_love, and recipecommunity and creative_cooks.* Communities on the same topic may take steps to distinguish themselves. For example,
dw_community_promo is only for promoting communities, while promoting is for everything else like commissions or fanfic journals. This may make it inappropriate to crosspost due to differing guidelines, so check before you crosspost.* Community organizers can help by clearly indicating in their guidelines whether crossposting is welcome, and if so, what kinds. Allowing crossposts can get you more activity from people who are already writing about what your community features and wouldn't mind copying it there. Requiring all unique content can discourage posting -- which may be what you want if you're pushing the upper limit of tolerable traffic. Individual bloggers may also have a crosspost policy. Look for this information in a personal or community profile, sticky post, or blanket statement.
Crossposting vs. Reblogging
Crossposting performs some of the same functions as reblogging. It copies and spreads the same information over a wider range so that more people can see it. Dreamwidth does have an automatic crossposting feature, but it only works for other platforms, not for different blogs or communities inside Dreamwidth itself. Therefore crossposting within Dreamwidth has to be done manually: you copy the title and text into a new post window for another blog or community.
Crossposting differs from reblogging in a variety of ways. It's not automatic within Dreamwidth. This platform doesn't have the same kind of tracking that some other social networks do, where if someone reblogs your post, then you get credit for that and lots of reblogging makes your own blog more popular as a result.
You can crosspost your own work to multiple locations, as long as you don't do it so much that it irritates people, which could get you banned from some communities. Copying other people's posts without permission is generally considered bad netiquette here, even though it is the norm on some other platforms that rely a lot on reblogging.
Some Dreamwidth posts do say "please forward / link widely" or otherwise indicate that this is something folks are welcome to reblog and/or link to. For example, I have 3 recurring posts in my Wednesday rotation (Good News, Hard Things, and Cuddle Party), and the Recurring Posts entry says that folks can copy those. So for Cohost refugees who miss the reblogging option, watch for things like that where people state that reblogging a piece is okay.
Perhaps a Reblogging tag and interest would be helpful. That way, people who are into it -- and that's likely to be a lot of Tumblr users as well as Cohost refugees -- could easily find each other and rebloggable material to share. It could be made to work similarly to a blanket statement for podcast permissions, which is popular; so you could also put this information in your blanket statement.
Alternatively, you could regularly post a list of links labeled "Things I Would Totally Reblog If Reblogging Worked on Dreamwidth." And then you make that link list rebloggable with a permission statement at the end of it! \o/ You'd still have to do your reblogging manually on Dreamwidth -- which could be made easier with a textbox for the code -- but it could be done among consenting users. Just write "Here is a textbox of the code so you can copy this content to your own blog if you wish" the way people sometimes do with friending memes or event announcements.
If you want to spread material, especially if you run a community or you know of a community that welcomes that kind of content, you can just ask the original author to crosspost their piece there. It's not exactly the same method as reblogging, but it achieves the same end result of duplicating content on multiple pages.
See also:
"Helpful Tips for Former Cohost Users (like myself)" by
onlyknownothing "to fill void of reblogs - for cohost and other microblog platform newcomers" by
kossai
