side-post

English

Alternative forms

• side post

Etymology

Probably analogous to top-post and bottom-post.

Noun

side-post (plural side-posts)

1. (Internet, dated) A message sent privately to a single member of a listserv.
   • 2001 July 9, L. Gerholz, “[FANFIC]Father's Day at Ohtori”, in alt.fan.utena‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Enough ecchiness from you. It's a cute shoujo story, which I explain in more detail in a side post.

   • 2007 September 14, Rumpelstiltskin, “Re: Swear him in !”, in soc.senior.issues‎^[2] (Usenet):

     As I noted in a side post, teranews doesn't seem to like crossposting.

   • 2007, Theo Hug, Didactics of Microlearning, Münster […]: Waxmann, →ISBN, page 161:

     In addition, it is in most cases not possible to confirm if members are sending side-posts i.e. messages directly send^[sic] to other listmembers. The phenomenon of lurkers sending side-posts is described by Katz, who analyses differences between public and private reactions to his postings and articles (Katz, 1998).

Verb

side-post (third-person singular simple present side-posts, present participle side-posting, simple past and past participle side-posted)

1. (intransitive, Internet, dated) To send a side-post.
   • 2003 May 15, Cass, “RV Hookups and WA state RV Regulatoins”, in alt.rv‎^[3] (Usenet):

     You even are so far consumed with your self-importance and propensity to bend others to the way you want them to post by telling me that I am now doing the heinous 'top-posting'. If I could figure a way to side post, you would complain about that, too.

   • 2012, Christopher Lueg, Danyel Fisher, From Usenet to CoWebs, London: Springer, →ISBN, page 126:

     Some lurkers side-post: Several participants said they made connections to individuals outside the online groups. These connections are a valid form of communication and have value for the individuals and thus the group as a whole.

   • 2016, Giuseppe Riva, Brenda K. Wiederhold, Pietro Cipresso, The Psychology of Social Networking, volume 1, Warsaw, Berlin: De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, page 163:

     Lurkers avoid contributing to the chaos and information overload often found in communities, and, by side-posting or contacting individuals directly instead, they are engaging in pro-social and thoughtful altruistic behaviour.

Related terms

• bottom-post
• top-post

 

Further reading

• Posting style on Wikipedia.Wikipedia