Cross-posting and clients, a quick answer

[azurelunatic]

I have seen a lot of questions not just here, but all over, about the cross-posting feature. Since a lot of questions generally means that the answer isn't clear enough or prominent enough, here goes!

The cross-post settings that one sets on the Other Sites page only applies to updates made through the update page, not through any other client (Semagic, LoudTwitter, post by e-mail, through Google Documents, or anything else that is not the update page).

When posting from another client besides the update page, you will have to do one of the following:

• Use a cross-posting feature from that client.
• Cross-post manually.
• Post, then edit the post from the Dreamwidth website (rather than through a client) and save the entry with cross-posting turned on. (This will cross-post it if it was not automatically cross-posted before.)
• Do without cross-posting.

As more clients are written to include Dreamwidth, cross-posting between sites is likely to become an option in these clients. However, if your client does not tell you that it is cross-posting, or if you did not set up cross-posting in your client, at this time your client is most likely not doing that.

Comments

[mel]

The cross-post settings that one sets on the Other Sites page only applies to updates made through the update page, not through any other client

That makes sense, otherwise you could end up with more than one of the same post, if the client crossposted but then the sites crossposted as well.

It reminds me of a couple of people I know who briefly had Twitter set up to post to their blogs, but also had their blogs set up to post to Twitter automatically when it's updated...all it takes is one genuine tweet which gets posted to the blog, then an automated tweet saying the blog has been updated, then the blog reporting that tweet again, and on and on. It's hilarious, but pointless.

[azurelunatic]

Infinite loops are fun.

[geminianeyes]

Thank you for the answer. I'd just like to double confirm:

When posting from another client besides the update page, you will have to do one of the following:

* Use a cross-posting feature from that client.

This means that I have to use a cross-posting feature from the client itself to Dreamidth/LJ to crosspost instead of Client to Dreamwidth to LJ, correct?

[azurelunatic]

Correct.

This will create two identical posts in both places (you may have to edit usernames), and Dreamwidth's crossposter feature won't realize that you've cross-posted. This means that if you have to edit it on Dreamwidth after crossposting with a client, Dreamwidth's crossposter may create a duplicate copy.