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Information about Internet Forum

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A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets
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A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang
An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, (electronic) discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards, fora (the Latin plural) or simply forums. The terms "forum" and "board" may refer to the entire community or to a specific sub-forum dealing with a distinct topic. Messages within these sub-forums are then displayed either in chronological order or as threaded discussions.

Such forums perform a function similar to that of the dial-up bulletin board systems and Internet newsgroups that were numerous in the 1980s and 1990s. [1] Early web-based forums such as UBB.classic date back as far as 1996. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games and/or video games, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of different topics. Internet slang and image macros popular across the internet are abundant and most widely used in internet forums.

Membership and anonymity

Anonymous forums may offer full anonymity or pseudonymity, allowing posts without registration. Captchas, e-mail authentication, and tripcodes are often used to prevent comment spam on such forums.

Registered members of a forum, who are identified by unique usernames, may have additional privileges, such as the ability to edit their previous posts, start new topics, and control their individual settings and profiles. The profiles tend to include graphical avatars and signature blocks which are appended to their future posts, sometimes consisting of elaborate shoutboxes. Members also have the ability to send personal messages to each other. In certain cases, members have been given the ability to close their own topics, edit previously posted comments, or delete posts in topics they have started.

Western-style forums place heavy emphasis on identity and user registration. This makes the tone of discussion very different from the more anonymous 2channel style boards. The burdens of status and persona encourage both highly formal discourse and close personal relationships, depending on the tone given a forum by its moderators and heaviest users. The permanence of messages on many western-style forums can encourage users to self-moderate. Precursor systems like Usenet have been archived as far back as 1981 by Google Groups (formerly DejaNews).

Administrators and moderators

A forum administrator typically has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum. Administrators also usually have the ability to close the board, change major software items, change global skins, modify the board, and ban, delete, or create members. Moderators have a subset of these powers, which may include editing, deleting, and moving threads, mass pruning, warning members for offences, and changing minor forum details. It is often possible for moderator privileges to be delegated to other forum members.

A board's moderation system can include moderation of the moderators via a meta-moderation system. The board software may also allow administrators to create wordfilters, automated scripts which strip undesirable text from users' messages. Other features may include sticky threads, allowing moderators and administrators to cause significant threads to display at the top of the forum's index.

Features

Forum software packages are widely available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java and ASP. The configuration and records of posts can be stored in text files or in a database. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually known as BBCode). Many packages can be integrated easily into an existing website to allow visitors to post comments on articles.

Several other web applications, such as weblog software, also incorporate forum features. Wordpress comments at the bottom of a blog post allow for a single-threaded discussion of any given blog post. Slashcode, on the other hand, is far more complicated, allowing fully threaded discussions and incorporating a robust moderation and meta-moderation system as well as many of the profile features available to forum users. Full content management systems such as Drupal or Mambo can also incorporate full-blown forums as plugins or basic features of forums in other portions of their website.

Comparison with other web applications

One significant difference between forums and electronic mailing lists is that mailing lists automatically deliver new messages to the subscriber, while forums require the member to visit the website and check for new posts. Because members may miss replies in threads they are interested in, many modern forums offer an "e-mail notification" feature, whereby members can choose to be notified of new posts in a thread, and RSS feeds that allow members to see a summary of the new posts using aggregator software. The main difference between newsgroups and forums is that additional software, a newsreader, is required to participate in newsgroups. Visiting and participating in forums normally requires no additional software beyond the web browser.

Wikis, unlike conventional forums, typically allow all users to edit all content, including each other's messages. This level of content manipulation is reserved for moderators or administrators on most forums. Wikis also allow the creation of other content outside of the talk pages. On the other hand, weblogs and generic content management systems tend to be locked down to the point where only a few select users can post blog entries, although many allow other users to comment upon them.

Forums differ from chat rooms and instant messaging in that forum participants do not have to be online at the same time; forums also usually deal with one topic and personal exchanges are typically discouraged. Messages posted to a forum or Usenet are publicly available for some time, which is uncommon in chat rooms, with only few exceptions.

Forum netiquette

Main article: Netiquette

Multiple posts

One common faux pas on internet forums is to post the same message twice. Users sometimes post versions of a message that are only slightly different, especially in forums where they aren't allowed to edit their earlier posts. Multiple posting instead of editing prior posts can artificially inflate a user's post count. Multiple posting can be unintentional; a user's browser might display an error message even though the post has been transmitted or a user of a slow forum might become impatient and repeatedly hit the submit button. Multiple posting can also be used as a method of trolling or spreading forum spam. A user may also send the same post to several forums, crossposting. This problem was inherited from Usenet and is a common complaint in many forums.

Spamming

Main article: Forum spam
Forum spamming is a breach of netiquette where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting in that spamming is usually a wilful act which sometimes has malicious intent. This is a common trolling technique. It can also be traditional spam, unpaid advertisements that are in breach of the forum's rules. Spammers utilize a number of illicit techniques to post their spam, including the use of botnets.

Trolls

Main article: Troll (Internet)
A troll is a user that repeatedly and intentionally breaches netiquette, often posting derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community to bait users into responding. They may also link to shock sites or plant images on networks that others may find disturbing in order to cause confrontation. Trolls known as gravediggers purposefully post in old and irrelevant threads simply to bring that thread to light again.

See also

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

In software engineering, a Web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via web over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.

Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of a client, sometimes called a thin client.
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User generated content (UGC), also known as Consumer Generated Media (CGM) [1] or User created Content (UCC) [2] , refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users [3] .
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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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An order is a way of sorting entries, also called elements, in a list. The mathematical concept of linear order is closely related.
  • Chronological order — listing by time, earliest to latest.

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A threaded discussion is an electronic discussion (such as one via e-mail, e-mail list, bulletin board, newsgroup, or Internet forum) in which the software aids the user by visually grouping messages. Messages are usually grouped visually in a hierarchy by topic.
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Bulletin board system, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line (or Telnet) and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, reading news, and exchanging
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A newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. The term is somewhat confusing, because it is usually a discussion group.
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worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

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For the band, see .

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UBB.classic (formerly Ultimate Bulletin Board or UBB) is an Internet forum software package originally written by Ted O'Neil of Groupee, Inc. in 1996. It is written in Perl and uses a flat file database. The last version of the software was 6.7.
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A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to face.
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Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
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personal computer game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine.
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video game is a game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.

The word video in video game traditionally refers to a raster display device.
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Fashion is a term that usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression, but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or may not apply to all. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the culture as a whole.
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religion is a set of common beliefs and practices generally held by a group of people, often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience.
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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Internet slang/language is slang that Internet users have coined and promulgated. Such terms typically originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes, and many people use the same abbreviations in text messages. They are also very commonly used in instant messaging.
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image macro is a picture with digitally superimposed text, often for humorous effect. The name image macro originates from the Something Awful Forums, where for a time the use of a preset "macro" text would insert into the post a corresponding image.
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Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ανωνυμία, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, the term typically refers to a person, and often means that the personal identity, or personally identifiable information
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Pseudonymity is a word derived from pseudonym, meaning 'false name', and describes a state of disguised identity resulting from the use of a pseudonym (also called nym). The pseudonym identifies a holder
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CAPTCHA (IPA: /ˈkæptʃə/) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human.
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Ensuring a valid identity on an e-mail has become a vital first step in stopping spam, forgery, fraud, and even more serious crimes. An essential second step would be ensuring the entity has a good reputation.
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Tripcodes are a method of authentication that does not require registration. They are most often used in 2channel-style message boards or Futaba Channel-style imageboards. A tripcode is a hashed password by which a person can be identified by others.
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For blogs that are built only for spamming, see Spam blog.


Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamdexing.
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User in a computing context refers to one who uses a computer system. Users may need to identify themselves for the purposes of accounting, security, logging and resource management.
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For other uses, see Avatar (disambiguation).
An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avie, avy, avi, avvie, avis, avies, avii, and avvy
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signature block (often abbreviated as signature, sig block, sig file, .sig, dot sig, siggy, or just sig) is a block of text automatically appended at the bottom of an e-mail message, Usenet article, or forum post.
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A shoutbox, saybox, tagboard, or chatterbox is a chat-like feature of some websites that allows people to quickly leave messages on the website, generally without any form of user registration.
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A personal message or private message, often shortened to PM, is like an e-mail sent from one Internet forum or bulletin board system user to another user on the same forum.
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