As long as you don't try to pass the content as your own it's okay, at least in my book.
When crossposting you're also not reuploading but forwarding/reusing the original link that allows everyone else to go back to the source. That's enough.
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Yeah of course if it's artwork or text, obviously then I'd make it explicitly clear it's not mine but I mean news articles, memes, things like that.
I think that when you repost it is clear who the original author is and where he put it, I don't think there is a problem with that, especially in a system that does not accumulate karma or anything like that. For me it is one of the best features of Lemmy (piefed, kbin, etc) and I think it should be enhanced more
If anything, I'd prefer to see people cross post from small communities to bigger ones, since they will give exposure to the smaller communities. But the meme and news comms are already pretty big, so cross posting from one big group to another just feels like cluttering up people's feeds with duplicates.
Cross posting generally has the opposite result from what I’ve seen. The bigger subs soak up all the eyes on the content and no one ever follows the link to the original to subscribe.
Like in theory it sounds great, but in reality it seems to work out the opposite and it hurts exposure because now the small subs don’t get that “big” for them post in their comm.
Personally, I usually do find new subs and subscribe because of cross posting.
I’m just going from my experience running comms and watching the sub growth. Some people do come, but I find the rate slows down compared to a successful post directly on the comm.
I think both of you have valid experiences. Not everyone uses social media the same way. From switching from being a lurker to being a poster, it's gotten me to focus more on how people interact with content. I operate more like QuadratureSufer to find smaller creators, but plenty are going to do as you've seen of just subbing a few big groups and letting content trickle up to them. They'll get the real popular stuff, but may miss things people subbing to the source will get to enjoy.
Ultimately both are valid approaches, but if nothing ever gets crossposted up to the big subs, that's just less eyes possible on the small subs for people that dont browse way down /All. Posting something from a big comm down to a small one doesn't seem beneficial since why would one interact with it on the small comm when there will be less commenting going on there? That's my personal thoughts at least.
Agreed. Thou it doesn't really reply to OP question about "asking for permission". The advice given here is more in line with the netiquette of crossposts overall, and shows one special case where a crosspost could be undesired (not by its poster but by all users.)
Other than this, I don't think there's anything wrong about using the feature as it is. I actually find OP question quite "absurd", like for me the answer is obviously not wrong.. just use the feature in the software (lemmy)
Sorry. Addendum: I see no issue with cross posting without asking. We post to get our message out there and cross posting aids in that process. I like that seeing our posts have been cross posted is easier to see these days on web Lemmy and many apps, as if my stuff is cross posted, I just like to know about it so I can answer any questions, since I focus on more educational subjects.
Yeah, photon frontend for lemmy is great in that regard. I can see a collection of threads of all the crossposts altogether in one page. Lovely! (except when the number of comments was too high everywhere haha!)
Yeah I was thinking that maybe it is absurd. The crosspost function is there for a reason. But I still felt unsure on if there is some netiquette that I'm unaware of.
Nahhh. It's a compliment! If people repost what you made it's because you fuckin cooked.
i don't post for recognition, i post to entertain. if someone crossposts more people get entertained :)
I don't ask for permission because it's almost always yes, but I will delete it if the person asks.
I like to leave a comment because it helps people discover the smaller communities
No. It's not. As long as you use the crosspost button so there's a link chain to the original
I usually try to mention the community in the original post and let the OP a bit time for cross posting it by themself, but ultimately I'll cross post. I don't see any problem with it.
without saying anything?
What do you mean, with this? (Serious question, if you're wondering. I don't do crosspost so I have no idea how this works ;)
I mean like asking them if I can or adding a note like @user posted this on !community or something. Though it does show the crosspost already so maybe that covers it?
Oh, thx for the explanation. Like I said, I don't do that myself but if I was asked if it was ok, I would not mind at all, quite the contrary.
Nope
This isn't reddit; we don't have a host of frothing-at-the-mouth pendants. You don't have to label stuff for the most part.
The only real no-no people will jump down your throat about is posting AI stuff (unintentionally or not).
I think the only time it would actually be impolite to do so without asking is if it was someone's OC. Like someone drew something and posted it to Lemmy and nowhere else.
A good rule of thumb is that you should always cite your sources, if possible. Even when quoting a song lyric, for example.
Right, but the crosspost feature takes care of this by linking directly to the source.