Internet Forum
software package, one of the most popular forum packages.]]
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user and/or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible.
Forums have their own language; e.g. A single conversation is called a 'thread'. A forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure: forum - subforum - topic - thread - reply.
Depending on the forum set-up, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum and then subsequently log in in order to post messages. Usually you do not have to log in to read existing messages.
History
The modern forum originated from
bulletin boards, and are a technological evolution of the dialup
bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint,
forums or
boards are
web applications managing
user-generated content.
Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup (such as exist on Usenet); allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated the different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum, dedicated to a particular topic.
Registration or anonymity
In the
United States and some parts of
Europe, most Internet forums require registration to post. Registered users of the site are referred to as
members and are allowed to submit or send electronic messages through the
web application. The process of registration involves verification of one's age (typically over 12 is required so as to meet
COPPA requirements of American forum software) followed by a declaration of the
terms of service (other documents may also be present) and a request for agreement to said terms. Subsequently, if all goes well, the candidate is presented with a
web form to fill requesting at the very least: a
username (an alias), password, email and validation of a
CAPTCHA code.
While simply completing the registration web form is generally enough to generate an account the status label Inactive is commonly provided by default until the registered user confirms the email address given while registering indeed belongs to the user. Until that time, the registered can log in to the new account but may not post, reply, or send private messages in the forum.
Sometimes a referrer system is implemented. A referrer is someone who introduced or otherwise "helped someone" with the decision to join the site (similarly how a HTTP referrer is the site who linked one to another site). Usually, referrers are other forum members,and members are usually rewarded for referrals. The referrer system is also sometimes implemented so that if a visitor visits the forum though a link such as referrerid=300, the user with the id number (in this example, 300) would receive referral credit if the visitor registers. The purpose is commonly just to give credit (sometimes rewards are implied) to those who help the community grow.
In areas such as China and Japan, registration is frequently optional and anonymity is sometimes even encouraged. On these forums, a tripcode system may be used to allow verification of an identity without the need for formal registration. People who do not register and/or post are often referred to as "lurkers".
Rules and policies on forums
Forums are governed by a set of individuals, collectively referred to as
staff, made up of
administrators and
moderators, which are responsible for the forums' conception, technical maintenance, and policies (creation and enforcing). Most forums have a list of rules detailing the wishes, aim and guidelines of the forums creators. There is usually also a
FAQ section contain basic information for new members and people not yet familiar with the use and principles of a forum (generally tailored for specific forum software).
Rules on forums usually apply to the entire user body and often have preset exceptions, most commonly designating a section as an exception. For example, in an IT forum any discussion regarding anything but computer programming languages may be against the rules, with the exception of a general chat section.
Forum rules are maintained and enforced by the moderation team, but users are allowed to help out via what is known as a report system. Most American forum software contains such a system. It consists of a small function applicable to each post (including one's own). Using it will notify all currently available moderators of its location, and subsequent action or judgment can be carried out immediately, which is particularly desirable in large or very developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the private message system if they wish to report behavior. Moderators will generally frown upon attempts of moderation by non-moderators, especially when the would-be moderators do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators generally declare a post as against the rules, or predict punishment. While not harmful, statements which attempt to enforce the rules are discouraged.
When rules are broken several steps are commonly taken. First a warning is usually given; this is commonly in the form of a private message but recent development has made it possible for it to be integrated into the software. Subsequently, if the act is ignored and warnings do not work, the member is – usually – first exiled from the forum for a number of days. Denying someone access to the site is called a ban. Bans can mean the person can no longer log in or even view the site anymore. If the offender, after the warning sentence, repeats the offense, another ban is given, usually this time a longer one. Continuous harassment of the site eventually leads to a permanent ban. In most cases this simply means the account is locked. In extreme cases where the offender – after being permanently banned – creates another account and continues to harass the site, administrators will apply an IP ban (this can also be applied at the server level): if the IP is static, the machine of the offender is prevented from accessing the site. In some extreme circumstances, IP range bans or country bans can be applied; this is usually for political, licensing or other reasons. See also: Block (internet), IP blocking, Internet censorship.
Offending content is usually deleted. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem, it is locked; often a poster may request a topic expected to draw problems to be locked as well, although the moderators decide whether to grant it. In a locked thread, members cannot post anymore. In cases where the topic is considered a breach of rules it – with all of its posts – may be deleted.
Troll
Forum
trolls are users that repeatedly and deliberately breach the
netiquette of an established online community, posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to bait or excite users into responding or to test the forum rules and policies, and with that the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behavior may potentially start
flame wars (see below) or other disturbances. Responding to a troll's provocations is commonly known as 'feeding the troll' and is generally discouraged, as it can encourage their disruptive behavior.
Sock puppet
The term sock puppet refers to someone who is simultaneously registered under different pseudonyms on a particular message board or forum. The analogy of a sock puppet is of a puppeteer holding up both hands and supplying dialogue to both puppets simultaneously. A sock puppet will create multiple accounts over a period of time, using each user to debate or agree with each other on a forum. Sock puppets are usually found when an IP check is done on the accounts in forums.
Spamming
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 willful 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.
Some forums consider concise, comment-oriented posts spam, for example Thank you, Cool or I love it.
Double posting
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 are not 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, which is termed
crossposting. The term derives from
Usenet, where crossposting was an accepted practice but causes problems in web forums, which lack the ability to link such posts so replies in one forum are not visible to people reading the post in other forums.
Word censor
A word
censoring system is commonly included in the forum software package. The system will pick up words in the body of the post or some other user editable forum element (like user titles) and if they partially match a certain keyword (commonly no
case sensitivity) they will be censored. The most common censoring is letter replacement with an
asterisk character; for example: in the user title it is deemed inappropriate for users to use words such as "admin", "moderator", "leader" and so on, if the censoring system is implemented a title such as "forum leader" may be filtered to "forum ******". Rude or vulgar words are common targets for the censoring system. But such auto-censors can make mistakes, for example censoring "
wristwatch" to "wris****ch" and "
Scunthorpe" to "S****horpe."
Forum structure
A forum consists of a tree like directory structure containing at the lowest end
topics (commonly called
threads) and inside them
posts. Logically forums are organised into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic) driven and updated by a group known as
members, and governed by a group known as
moderators.
All message boards will use one of three possible display formats.
Each of the three basic message board display formats: Non-Threaded/Semi-Threaded/Fully Threaded,
has its own advantages and disadvantages. If messages are not related to one another
at all a Non-Threaded format is best. If you have a message topic and multiple
replies to that message topic a semi-threaded format is best. If you have a message
topic and replies to that message topic, and replies to replies, then a fully threaded
format is best.
User groups
Internally, Western-style forums organise visitors and logged in members into user groups. Privileges and rights are given based on these groups. A user of the forum can automatically be promoted to a more privileged user group based on criteria set by the administrator. A person viewing a closed thread as a
member will see a box saying he does not have the right to submit messages there, but a
moderator will likely see the same box granting him access to more than just posting messages.
An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a guest or visitor. Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy. A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking, but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member. A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum, a section or even a thread is referred to as a lurker and the habit is referred to as lurking. Registered members often will refer to themselves as lurking in a particular location, which is to say they have no intention of participating in that section but enjoy reading the contributions to it.
Moderator
The
moderators (short singular form: "mod") are users (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to the
posts and
threads of all
members for the purpose of
moderating discussion (similar to
arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing
spam and
spambots etc.). Because they have access to all posts and threads in their area of responsibility, it is common for a friend of the site owner to be promoted to moderator for such a task. Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. They also can do anything to lend a helping hand to a user in need. Moderators themselves may have ranks: some may be given mod privileges over only a particular topic or section, while others (called 'global' or 'super') may be allowed access anywhere. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming,
stickying of threads, banning, suspending, unsuspending, unbanning, warning the members, or adding, editing, removing the polls of threads. 'Junior Modding', 'Backseat Modding', or 'Forum copping' can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.
Essentially, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users.
Administrator
The
administrators (short form: "admin") manage the technical details required for running the site. As such, they may promote (and demote)
members to
moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any
database operations (
database backup etc.). Administrators often also act as
moderators. Administrators may also make forum-wide announcements, or change the appearance (known as the skin) of a forum. Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts. Some forums have disabled postcounts in the hopes that doing so will reduce the emphasis on quantity over quality of information.
Thread
A thread (sometimes called a topic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable: options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation 'OP', which can also mean
original poster) which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.
A thread is contained in a forum, and may have an associated date which is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a bump or bumping. Threads which are important but rarely receive posts are stickyed (or, in some software, 'pinned'). A sticky thread will always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section.
A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one – the opening post) counts. Some forums also track page views. Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views may receive a designation such as "hot thread" and be displayed with a different icon compared to others threads. This icon may stand out more to emphasize the thread.
{|align=left
|
|
|
|}
Discussion
Forums prefer a premise of open and free discussion and often adopt
de facto standards. Most common topics on forums include questions, comparisons, polls of opinion as well as debates. It is not uncommon for nonsense or unsocial behavior to sprout as people lose temper, especially if the topic is controversial. Poor understanding of differences in values of the participants is a common problem on forums. Because replies to a topic are often worded aimed at someone's point of view, discussion will usually go slightly off into several directions as people question each others' validity, sources and so on. Circular discussion and ambiguity in replies can extend for several tens of posts of a thread eventually ending when
everyone gives up or attention spans waver and a more interesting subject takes over. It is not uncommon for debate to end in
ad hominem attacks.
Flame wars
When a thread—or in some cases an entire forum—becomes unstable the result is usually uncontrolled spam in the form of one-line complaints,
image macros or abuse of the report system. When the discussion becomes heated and sides do nothing more than complain and not accept each other's differences in point of view, the discussion degenerates into what is called a
flame war. To
flame someone means to go off-topic and attack the person rather than their opinion. Likely candidates for flame wars are usually religion and socio-political topics, or topics that discuss pre-existing rivalries outside the forum (e.g.: rivalry between games, console systems, car manufacturers, nationalities, etc.)
When a topic that has degenerated into a flame war is considered akin to that of the forum (be it a section or the entire board), spam and flames have a chance of spreading outside the topic and causing trouble, usually in the form of vandalism. Some forums (commonly game forums) have suffered from forum-wide flame wars almost immediately after their conception, because of a pre-existing flame war element in the online community. Many forums have created devoted areas strictly for discussion of potential flame war topics that are moderated like normal.
Liabilities of forum owners and moderators
Several
lawsuits have been brought against forums and moderators claiming
libel and damage. A recent case is the
scubaboard lawsuit where a business in the Maldives filed a suit against scubaboard for libel and defamation in January 2010.
For the most part, though, forum owners and moderators in the United States are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
Common features
By default to be an Internet forum, the web application needs an ability to submit threads and replies. Forum software may sometimes allow categories or subforums. The chronological older-to-newer view is generally associated with forums (the newer to older being associated more akin to
blogs).
Tripcodes and capcodes
In a tripcode system, a secret password is added to the user's name following a separator character (often a
number sign). This password, or tripcode, is
hashed into a special key, or trip, distinguishable from the name by HTML styles. Tripcodes cannot be faked but on some types of forum software they are insecure and can be guessed. On other types, they can be brute forced with software designed to search for tripcodes such as Tripcode Explorer.
Moderators and administrators will frequently assign themselves capcodes, or tripcodes where the guessable trip is replaced with a special notice (such as "# Administrator"), or cap.
Private message
A
private message, or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. The ability to send so-called
carbon copies is sometimes available. When sending a
carbon copy (cc), the users to whom the message is sent directly will not be aware of the recipients of the carbon copy or even if one was sent in the first place.
Private messages are generally used for personal conversations. They can also be used with tripcodes—a message is addressed to a public trip and can be picked up by typing in the tripcode.
Attachment
An attachment can be almost any file. When someone attaches a file to a post they are uploading the file to the forums' server. Forums usually have very strict limit on what can be attached and what cannot (among which the size of the files in question). Attachments can be part of a thread, social group, etc.
BBCode and HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is sometimes allowed but usually its use is discouraged or when allowed it is extensively filtered. Modern bulletin board systems will have it disabled altogether or allow only Administrators use it, as allowing it on any Normal User level is considered a security risk due to a high rate of
XSS vulnerabilities. When HTML is disabled
Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is the most common preferred alternative. BBCode usually consists of a tag, similar to HTML only instead of
< and
> the tagname is enclosed within square brackets (meaning:
[ and
]). Commonly
[i] is used for
italic type,
[b] is used for
bold,
[u] for
underline,
[color="value"] for color and
[list] for lists, as well as
[img] for images and
[url] for links.
The following example BBCode: [b]This is [i]clever [b] [i]text when the post is viewed the code is rendered to HTML and will appear as: This is clever text.
Many forum packages offer a way to create Custom BBCodes, or BBcodes that are not built into the package, where the Administrator of the Board can create complex BBCodes to allow the use of javascript or iframe functions in posts, for example embedding a YouTube or Google Video complete with viewer directly into a post.
Emoticon
Emoticon or
smiley is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of an emoticons (e.g.
XD,
:p) are rendered as a small image. Depending on part the world the forum's topic originates (since most forums are international) smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics, an example would be
kaoani (e.g.
*(^O^)*,
(^-^)b).
Poll
Most forums implement an
opinion poll system for threads. Most implementations allow for single-choice or multi-choice (sometimes limited to a certain number) when selecting options as well as private or public display of voters. Polls can be set to expire after a certain date or in some cases after a number of days from its creation. Members vote in a poll and a statistic is displayed graphically.
RSS and ATOM
RSS and
ATOM feeds allow a minimalistic means of subscribing to the forum. Common implementations only allow RSS feeds listing the last few threads updated for the forum index and the last posts in a thread.
Other forum features
An
ignore list allows members to hide posts of other members that they do not want to see or have a problem with. In most implementations they are referred to as
foe list or
ignore list. Usually the posts are not hidden, but minimized with only a small bar indicating a post from the user on the
ignore list is there. Almost all internet forums include a
member list, which allows display of all forum members, with integrated search feature. Some forums will not list members with 0 posts, even if they have activated their accounts.
Many forums allow users to give themselves an avatar. An avatar is a image that appears beside all of a user's posts, in order to make the user more recognizable. The user may upload the image to the forum database, or may provide a link to an image on a separate website. Each forum has limits on the height, width, and data size of avatars that may be used; if the user tries to use an avatar that is too big, it may be scaled down or rejected.
Similarly, most forums allow users to define a signature (sometimes called a sig), which is a block of text, possibly with BBCode, which appears at the bottom of all of the user's posts. There is a character limit on signatures, though it may be so high that it is rarely hit. Often the forum's moderators impose manual rules on signatures to prevent them from being obnoxious (for example, being extremely long or having flashing images), and issue warnings or bans to users who break these rules. Like avatars, signatures may improve the recognizability of a poster. They may also allow the user to attach information to all of their posts, such as proclaiming support for a cause, noting facts about themselves, or quoting humorous things that have previously been said on the forum.
Common on forums, a subscription is a form of automated notification integrated into the software of most forums. It usually notifies either by email or on the site when the member returns. The option to subscribe is available for every thread while logged in. Subscriptions work with read marking, namely the property of unread which is given to the content never served to the user by the software.
Recent development in some popular implementations of forum software has brought social network features and functionality. Such features include personal galleries, pages as well as a social network like chat systems.
Most forum software is now fully customizable with "hacks" or "modifications" readily available to customize your forum to yours and your members needs.
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
web 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 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 simultaneously to receive or send messages. Messages posted to a forum or Usenet are publicly available for some time, which is uncommon in chat rooms that maintain frequent activity.
One rarity among forums is the ability to create your own picture album. Forum participants can upload personal pictures onto the site, add descriptions to the pictures, and choose album covers. Pictures are in the same format as posting threads, and contain the same options such as "Report Post" and "Reply to Post".
See also
List of internet forums
Bulletin board system
Chat room
Internet social network
Virtual community
Comparison of Internet forum software
List of Internet phenomena
Warnock's Dilemma
Notes
Examples
References
Category:Groupware
Category:On-line chat
Category:Social information processing
![[ENG] B1A4 (비원에이포) Web Toon Comic Story](http://web.archive.org./web/20110430184218im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zg2hF_Im8YU/0.jpg "[ENG] B1A4 (비원에이포) Web Toon Comic Story")
