Crossposting, also known as x-posting or xposting, is the act of posting one message to multiple information channels; forums, mailing lists, or newsgroups.
This is distinct from multiposting, which is the posting of separate identical messages, individually, to each channel, (a forum, a newsgroup, an email list, or topic area).
[clarification needed] Enforcement actions against crossposting individuals vary from simple admonishments up to total lifetime bans.
However, sometimes it is used maliciously to begin a thread between newsgroups whose readers are likely to have violently differing opinions, in the hope of provoking a conflict.
Some NNTP servers drop posts which are crossposted to more than a set number of newsgroups, especially if no "Followup-To:" line exists.