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How to publish to multiple forums

The Mid Continent MicroStation Community is looking to get feedback from multiple places on our agenda this year.

We could post in our forum, but then we have to assume that everyone reads our forum, or will think "Gee, I'll search on MCMC today to see what they are dong."

Because we have tracts that span multiple disciplines, we need to be able to post our query to those in those forums without the Forum Police deleting our posts.

What is the definitive policy on how to accomplish this?

And please don't say "You'll find information at <insert link here>" because while the help on Etiquette is specific about cross posting questions (Post only to the most appropriate area, and Do not post the same inquiry across multiple areas), you're assuming that if I post this in Communities forum that everyone will see it.  We are looking for maximum coverage for ths.

Please advise.

Parents Reply
  • Phil:

    By posting it in the MCMC Community (where it is currently posted), you're assuming that everyone in the entire Bentley Community is going to see it there, where we would like to post a link in the Support Forums and other locations. 

    Please suggest a strategy for us to maximize the ability for all Community members ( not just those keeping an eye on MCMC) to see and provide input on the post.

    Thanks,

    Shawn

     

     

    Thanks,

    Shawn

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Children
  • What you are suggesting (although having some merit) sets a precedent of posting across forums mainly to "call attention" to a post in another place. That is something that we have seen get out of control, resulting in inefficient parallel discussions relating to the same topic. It should be obvious that we do not want that to happen here (and have no plans to let it happen).

    That said, as has been described in this thread/topic as well as previous discussions (as well as some of the site Help references), you can "maximize" input by posting an on-topic article to the single forum that is most applicable to the inquiry without mixing contexts.

      

  • So would an OnTopic article in the Building/Analysis Forum be "Input for BIM Track at MCMC Conference"?  and then the same in the MicroStation Fourm "Input for MicroStation Track for MCMC Conference"

    OR

    Are you saying that a reply to a current Topic, say a support question, could be "we're going to cover this at the MCMC Confernence, see our community for more info"

    or both?

    We're just trying to find out what is right and what is not.  I don't want to post and then have everything cleaned up.

     

    PLUS if you want to tak this off line, just email me.  Thanks.

    Thanks,

    Shawn

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  • This is a good topic to have "in the open", since others may find it to be beneficial (or maybe not :).

    Understanding that there are likely to be different understandings regarding this, a simple "rule-of-thumb" to follow is to post the article in the forum that most applies to the context of the inquiry. Yes, that has been mentioned before, so...

    1. if the question primarily concerns something related to an upcoming event or a community itself, then post it in that community forum
    2. if the question pertains to a specific technical "thingamajig"* about a product, subsystem, functionality, etc., then post it in the product-related forum that most applies
    3. if the question pertains to a specific non-technical "thingamajig"*, then post it in the Solutions community forum that most applies 

    For the latter two, you could be creative and include reference to an upcoming event in the post body itself, but be aware that doing so will be temporal in nature, so imagine that the post is being read six months after the event to see if it would still make sense. But, by all means, please, please, please do not post the same inquiry in more than one forum. TIA

    * "thingamajig" meaning issue, problem, "is this how this works", "what about making it do this", information, etc.

      

  • We've posted in our community on our blog, and in our forum.  

    We don't want to cross post the same post, that's a given.   We want to have one post, one location. Agreed.

    In this case, this is an event, and the queries we have about the event span multiple forums and posting areas.  Not everyone has that Community bookmarked or tracked, and there are many folks who don't go off their beaten path...

    I'd like to avoid the temporal/time based situation you are talking about, but we still need a mechanism to say  "Hey go look over there" in other forums.  From what you've posted, we can't do that unless we get very creative.   How can we get the word out of these needs to folks who don't necessarily follow a particular forum or blog?   

    For example:  We really need input on our Civil tract from the user community in general, so it makes sense to me to say in a post "Please see <LINK> for information that we need your help on>.  It's more of a flag than a post.

    Also, it looks like there is only one solution forum called "Building Information Modeling".

     

    Thanks,

    Shawn

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  • That is exactly what we do not want... the product-oriented forums are for specific, on-topic inquiries related to that forum -- things like "Hey go look over there" are not what they were set up for. I do not know how to put it any simpler than that. Now, if you put something in your "signature" that subtly and tastefully references your Be Communities community in positive light (without going overboard, of course... :) so that when you post a new or constructive reply to an ON-TOPIC inquiry others can see that, that would be one way to communicate what it sounds like you are looking for. The more you contribute (more than "Yeah", "What they said", "Ditto", etc. which is not constructive at all), the more you get the word out for yourself.

    And, yes, there is only one Building Solutions (BIM) community -- there were several, but we heard from members (and recognized ourselves) that was confusing, so they were "consolidated" recently.