Allowing cross-posting - might need some programming work though....
 

Hi there - just a thought.

I have been, until recently, heavily involved in Newsgroups, using the NNTP standard. I am suggesting a software change which would enable cross-posting, but along the lines of cross-posting in newsgroups.

As an example, I just posted an item to the Qantas forum, which may also be of interest in the American Airlines forum.

Using the NNTP posting standards as a guideline, I should be able to also make the post appear in the AA forum. Those that solely read the QF forum would be able to see it in the QF forum. Those that solely read the AA forum would also see the post appear in the AA forum.

Someone solely reading the QF forum would be able to reply, and their reply would appear in both the QF and AA forums. Someone reading solely the AA forum would be able to read that reply, and would then be able to reply, with their reply appearing in both forums.

Basically, what I am suggesting is the implementation of a scheme where one post could appear in multiple forums (I suggest up to five, more could be problematic), rather than the current (against TOS) system where five posts appear in each of five forums.

All of the replies would appear in the same thread, appearing in each of the forums.

If I read a thread in QF, then it would be shown as already read when I pop over to AA if that thread appears there.

This could be beneficial for questions such as "QF or BA in C LHR-SYD", as it could appear in QF, BA and oneworld, getting a much better penetration of people who might be able to provide an opinion.

Just a random thought.

Dave

Basically, there is one thread in the database and all of the cross-posts are simply virtual aliases to the one actual thread? I love that idea!

Hey, it'd solve a lot of the issues brought up in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...ail-forum.html thread--someone posting a question about a journey from Paris to Frankfurt could make it appear in the European Rail, France, Germany, and Europe forums!

Seriously, I think it's a GREAT idea. The fact that it would be already marked read in the forums you subsequently visit is a key component (to keep people from complaining about seeing it too many places).

I'd give it my vote!

FT runs on the vBulletin software platform, which is used by tens of thousands of other Bulletin Boards and I had thought operate quite differently then newsgroups.

Here's the same question and reply from vBulletin:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...=cross-posting

Doesn't look like it is possible in the current format and that is similar to the answers we've seen over the years, even when we used to use UBB as our software platform.

Hope this helps.

NOTE: On a Web site the size of FlyerTalk (11 million posts) it is surely inadvisable to messing with the underlying code. I did notice a very old thread on the topic from 2001-2005 in the vB hacked site and even there it seemed there were no takers for the idea, even among the hackers to try and pull it off:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...=cross-posting