How to publish to multiple forums

Although the questions may span multiple areas, the underlying "connection" is your community, so that is where they should be posted. Multi- or cross-posts are not considered good Netiquette and will be "cleaned up".

So is it Ettiquette to post the "main" post in the Community Site, and post in other forums "Please see <insert link> for info on <subject>"

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.

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".

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.

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.

Phil,

Would a "News" or "Whats New" Forum or maybe a Wiki allow for a contiguous location for these types of information posts? Bentley has the "Announcements" forum; could it be possible to some how submit an a non-Bentley announcement for review and posting within the "Announcements" forum. I know this still requires a user to subscribe but this is a location to which I would think many already subscribe.  Could the "Announcements" be made manditory as in if you are a member you recieve the postings to the "Announcements" forum?

HTH - Roy

FWIW, I mean I only see one Solutions forum all together called BIM.  If there are more solutions forums covering different topics, I don't see them.

And you've made your point quite clear, I just don't happen to agree with it. :)  I see  the "hey look over there" posts...those posts happen to be by Bentley staff...

I'm not trying to be petty or anything here, Phil.   We're trying to promote this User Conference in the best way possible across the Community site.

<Phil Chouinard> wrote in message news:48015@communities.bentley.com...

We are not using the Announcements forum any more in favor of using the blog functionality (to make it possible for members to make comments, etc.) so that might be an option. However, that gets back to the original "problem" where you have to be subscribed to that forum or visit it on a regular basis -- that is something where more and more forums start down a slippery slope that eventually results in the lament "There are too many forums!!!!", which we have already heard. One thing that we want to do is to have an "events calendar" for things like this, but the infrastructure that is currently being used does not support that... yet. IMnsHO, using the "signature" technique (again, tastefully...) that I have personally seen as an effective way to get that sort of information out. The more constructive, informative replies you make, the more "rep" you can make for yourself.

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http://communities.bentley.com/administrators/general/f/9549/t/21692.aspx#48015

Phil,

I think I may have been appending to mt post during your reply; just checking to see if you read:

Roy Gallier:

  Could the "Announcements" be made manditory as in if you are a member you recieve the postings to the "Announcements" forum?

Thanks - Roy