whoiswct,
If you were paying for every post you made on every forum, then by all means, post away to your hearts content trying to get the best answer. Experts-Exchange has made their whole business model off of that, which they are welcome to, as far as I'm concerned.
While I suppose you could argue that we're in competition with each other,
www.excelforum.com,
www.vbaexpress.com,
www.thecodecage.com,
www.ozgrid.com,
www.mrexcel.com (to name a few) share an identical user-pay model. Each of these forums is free to use. Absolutely no cost to you at all. (We try to value add with other products to pay the hosting costs, thereby keeping the forums free.) No, we're not in an alliance, per se, but we certainly do support each other, as we're all ultimately trying to do the same thing: help people. In fact, most of these free forums share the same overall attitude.... With over 300 million users of Microsoft Office software, there is more than enough room on the net for a couple of dozen different forums. Each has it's own culture and flavour, and that allows users to find a place that they like best and fit in.
What makes our model work is the reliance of other experts who also just want to see users get help. And that, right there, is the crux of the cross-posting issue. The reality is that those experts are actually few and far between, and they VOLUNTEER their time.
From my own perspective, I work full time, run my own business and volunteer in my community as well. My time is very limited, and my goal here is to help users. I don't charge them for this privilege, and I have a few reasons of my own for that. You can call me foolish if you will, but helping people is a passion of mine. But the point is this. If you've posted at my forum and another, and we don't know, then you've got two separate people working on answers. I've had SEVERAL instance where I've spent HOURS working on a solution for someone, only to find out that they had it solved the day before on another forum. And those hours that I wasted on a solution for someone who didn't need it were then lost to me. End result is that someone else went without an answer to their question.
It's because of that sting that I wrote the cross-posting policy that is on this site. And if you think that it puts any forum at a disadvantage, then consider this... I have thousands of incomming links to that page from forums. The other site owner's aren't threatened by it at all, they embrace it.
Honestly, I think you've truly missed the point of the article. No one is saying pick one forum over another. What we're saying is:
- Give the forum you posted at a reasonable chance to answer and then,
- If you do cross post then post links in both directions so that we can see it.
It's respectful to the owners and it's respectful of the experts (many of whom do transcend boards).
Whoiswct, you're welcome to post here, and I'll do what I can to help you. But I really don't think it's unfair to ask for the courtesy of knowing who else is working on something at the same time.