Since this is a new feature, I wanted to start a discussion about what etiquette rules might govern the republishing of someone else's diary into a group that the diarist doesn't belong to.
I'm well aware that the official stance of the site is that permission isn't necessary. As the legalese at the bottom of each page says:
Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
That being said, do we want to set some community standards for this kind of thing? I could envision a situation where a group member republishes a diary to a group for not entirely nice purposes. Publishing a diary about the existence of God to the entire site would garner one kind of reception, but republishing that same diary to an athiest group might garner a very different reception.
My feeling is that it's always polite to ask, and in most cases the diarist would probably be happy to grant permission. If you ask and the diarist says no, then the best thing to do would be to accept that.
But there are some diarists who never respond to comments. Is it okay to republish their diaries without permission?
For those who haven't tried the republish feature yet, it does not allow you to make any changes to the diary, other than to add a clearly-deferentiated note at the top. It still carries the byline of the diarist, as well as the date it was originally published. (You can see an example of a republished diary with a note here.)
Any thoughts on this are welcome. Thanks!