Internet forum

phpBB3, an Internet forum software package

A Internet forum is a bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site. From a technological stand point, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content. Forums allow anonymous visitors to view the contents and consist of a group of contributors who've registered into the system, becoming known as members. The members submit topics for discussion (known as threads) and communicate with each other using publicly visible messages (referred to as posts) or private messageing.

People participating in a internet forum will usually build bonds with each other and intrest groups will easily form around a topics' discussion, subjects dealt within or around sections in the forum. The term community refers to the segment of the online community participating in the activities of the web site they reside in. It is also used to refer to the group interested in the topic on the internet, rather then just the site.

Registration

Registration is the process through which one becomes a member of the forum. 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 ones' age (typically over 12 is required so as to meet COPPA requirements) 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 (a alias), password, email and validation of a CAPTCHA code.

While simply completing the registration web form is – usually – enough to generate an account the status label Inactive is commonly given by default until the registered confirms the email address indeed belongs to him. Until that time, the registered can log in to his new account but may not use the forum for communication (posts, threads, private messages).

Sometimes a referrer system is implemented. A referrer is someone who lead you or otherwise "helped you" in your decision to join the site (similarly how a HTTP referer is the site who linked you to a another site). Usually for forums referrers are other members. 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 the 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.

Rules and policies on forums

Forums are governed by a set of individuals, commonly referred to as staff or administrators, which are responsible for the forums conception, technical maintenance and policies. Most forums contain a forum rules section 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. The rules section is sometimes built into the FAQ section, but it's almost always available as a thread.

Rules on forum usually apply to the entire user body and often have preset exceptions, most commonly a section as a exception. So in a IT forum any discussion regarding anything but computer programing languages may be outlawed, with the exception of the general chat section. Common rules found on most forums include:

• No swearing or otherwise vulgar language
• No insulting or harassing fellow members
• No advertising or spam
• No doubleposting
• No multiple accounts
• No links or information on warez or copyright infringing material
• Do not resurrect dead threads

Forum rules are maintained and enforced by the moderation team, but users are allowed to help out via what's known as the report system. Today this system is available in all major implementations. It consists of a small function applicalble to each post (including ones' own posts) and commonly illustrated by a icon with a exclamation mark ("!") on it. Clicking the icon will notify all currently available moderators of it's location, and subsequent action, judgment can be caried out imediatly, which is desirable in either large or very developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the private message system if they wish to report behaviour. Moderators will generally frown upon attempts of moderation by non-moderators, especially when the would be moderators (or "back seat moderators") do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators usually go along the lines of: "This thread will be closed [...]", "You guys are breaking rule [...]". While not harmful these statements which attempt to enforce the rules are discuraged.

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 posible for it to be integrated into the software. Subsequently, if the act is ignored and warnings do not work, the member is – usually – fist exiled from the forum for 3 days. Denying someone access to the site is called a ban (as in "you have been banished"). Bans can mean you can no longer log in or you can't even view the site anymore. If the offender, after the warning sentece, repeats the offence, another warning is given, usually this time a longer one. Continous harassment of the site eventually leads to a permanent ban. However, in most cases this simply means the account is locked. In extreme cases where the offender – after being permanantly banned – creates another account and continues to harass the site, administrators will apply a IP ban thus if the IP is static the machine of the offendent is prevented from accessing the site (this can also be applied at the server level). In some extreme circumstances IP range bans or country bans can be applied, however this is usually for political, licensing or other reasons.

Offending content is usually treated with deletion. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem it is locked. In a locked thread members can not post anymore. In cases where the topic is considered a breach of rules it – with all of it's posts – may be deleted.

Troll

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, often starting flame wars. 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.

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 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. A different form of spamming is making posts that have little or no meaning (e.g., "It waz h").

Some forums consider posts consisting solely out of: Thank you., I love it. – or similar phrases – spam.

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 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, which is termed crossposting. This problem was inherited from Usenet and is a common complaint in many forums.

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.

User groups

Internaly forums organise visitors and logged in members into user groups. Privilages and rights are given based on these groups. 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 then just posting messages.

Guest

A guest is a unregistered user of the site, commonly a visitor. Guests are granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy. A guest can view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking. A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum, a section or even a thread is refered to as a lurker and the habit is refered to as lurking. Registered members often will refer to themselvs 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.

Member

Identified internally by their username (alias), members (also known as "posters" or "users") are the moving force behind the community. Unlike a guest, a member (also called user) has the ability to create threads, submit message etc, thus, they talk about the topic or get envolved in discussions with other members participating in the threads, private message other members, use polls along with other forum features.

As a member you are allowed to edit or delete your own posts and threads. Some times these rights are reserved.

Forum members are allowed to have what's called an avatar and forum signature. The avatar is generally a small image often limited to 80x80 pixels (other common dimensions include 100x100 and 90x90 pixels) and limited to 6kBs (50kBs also common) displayed bellow a users' username. The forum signature consists of text – usually images are also allowed – defined by the user and appended at the end of each of his posts. Both fundamentally are just expressions of the users' creativity, rarely is their content limited. Some forums do forbid uploading of avatars and allow only avatars from their gallery.

Specialized forums like to split the members into specific groups. For example, subscriber or donator etc. Usually these forums reflect the members' status via a title bellow their username and grant them special access and privileges.

Moderator Control Panel

Administration Control Panel

Moderators

The moderators (short singular form: "mod") are users of the forum which 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 (neutralising spam and spambots etc). Because they have access to all posts and threads, functions for handling multiple entries (such as merging) are available. Moderators can manage the forum in two ways. They can be assigned to a specific section and as such only have moderator privilages in that section. It is common for a knoledgeble and trustworthy member to be promoted to moderator for such a task. The alternative is usually refered to as a super moderator, insted of managing any one section they have moderator privilages for the entire forum, and are expected to help each other handle everything. Common privilages of moderators include: deleting, merging, removing, moving, spliting of posts and threads; closing, renaming, stickying of threads; banning, unbanning, warning the members; adding, editing, removing the polls of threads etc

Administrator

A administrator (short form: "admin") manages the technical details required for running the site, they also promote (and demote) members to moderators manage the rules which are to be enforeced and create sections, sub-section and set the forums' settings, as well as perform any database operations (database backup etc). Administrators often also act as moderators. Besides all moderator privilages, commmon administor powers include: making forum wide announcement messages; changing forum settings; adding, removing, altering forum skins or BBcode or members or privilages or groups or forums etc.

The term prune used extensively in administration panels is synonimous with delete or remove. The term comes from pruning, the practice of removing diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant.

Post

A post is a user submitted message enclosed into a block containing the users details (username, and other data enabled by the administrator) the date it was submited as well as links to forum functions such as editing, reporting, deleting or quoting it. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they apear as boxes one after another. If the post is not the first of the thread, it also refered to as reply. The title usually is the threads title with a "RE:" prefix, as in "Reply". Often this behaviour is changed so that subsequent replies have no title.

There are two distinct main styles to display the members' details. The classic way has always been on the left side of the post in a narrow column of fixed width, with part of the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementions the style has changed in favor of displaying the members' details at the top as a header of the post, the controls enclosed within. Usually the username and avatar will be located on the left side. In recent versions of phpBB the style has gone in favor of displaying the data into a transparent column on the right side inside the post block.

Posts have a internal limit usually measured in characters. Often one is required to have a message of mininum leanth of 10 characters. There is always a upper limit but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 30,000 or 50,000 characters.

Thread

A thread is a colection of posts, usually displayed – by default – from oldest to latest, although the option for a threaded view (tree like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title a opening posts (common abreviation is OP, which can also mean opening poster) which defines it's topic or purpose (in case it's a game thread etc) and sometimes an additional "description" that compliments the title (implementations vary wildly). 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 is displayed in chronological order from newest to oldest, where the date 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 recieve posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason, but to have it go to the top, it is refered to as a bump or bumping. Threads which are important but rarely recieve posts are stickyed. A sticky thread will always apear in front of normal threads.

A threads popularity is measured on forums in views (the number of times the forum has been viewed) and replies (total posts minus one – the opening post) count. Threads meating a set number of posts or a set number of views, preset by the forums administrators, recieves the name of "hot thread" and usually display a different icon compared to others threads, not meating the criteria.

Thread (viewing as moderator)

Forum (viewing as moderator)

Forum

A forum is a colection of threads or other forums or both. Forums can also be unaccesible, hidden (as in still accessible if you know the link) but usually are accesible to the public and permit creation of threads. Forums (the container) are used extensively for the purpose of split the topic into manigible chunks (e.g. technology is seperated from art and movies etc). A container is a special kind of forum which never has threads. It's purpose is usually for style and to offer some additional controls for colapsing the section. It is commonly only used at the top level.

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. The language used on forums is generally not limited by any set rules and standards. Personal opinion is commonly more dominant then informative opinion or documented one; often expresing your personal opinion over others is encouraged or implied. Because of their volotile and random behaviour it's not uncommon for nonsense or unsocial behaviour to sprout as people loose temper and try to fight each other.

Because replies to a topic are more often then not wording aimed at someones' point of view, discussion will usually go slitly off into several directions as people question each others validity, sources etc, with like to be interpreted phrases. Circular disucssion and ambiguity in replies can carry out arguments for several tens of posts of a thread eventually ending when everyone gives up or another similar debate takes it over. It's not uncommon for a style over substance or ad hominem debates to be the ones to take it over. Other problems on forums include catch-22 logic, regress arguments, vagueness, counterfactual history arguments etc. Most issues arise from a poor understanding or ignorance of argumentation theory and differences in values of the participants.

Flame wars

When a thread – or in some cases a entire forum – becomes unstable the result is usually uncontrolled spam in the form of one line complaints, image macros or rude behaviour. When the discussion becomes heated and sides do nothing more then 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 offtopic and attack the person rather then their opinion. Likely candidates for flame wars are usually religion, political or otherwise sensitive topics. Topics which degenerate are usually locked but when the problem is considered contagious they are deleted.

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 suffer from forum wide flame wars almost imediatly after their conception, because of a pre-exisiting flame war element in the online community.

A flame war isn't always associated or considered a breach of rules if troll or spam like behaviour doesn't accompany the usual rude replyies or unsocial behaviour. Since they can easily be passed as simply a "heated discussion" it is not uncommon for moderators to cast a blind eye upon them in the hope both paties exhaust each other in the one thread instead of spreading vandalism into others.

Common features

By default to be a internet forum, the web application needs an ability to create the two main user groups members and moderators and give them the ability to submit threads and posts. Originally forums' structure had only one level, or a limited amount of sub-levels. (modern forums commonly have unlimited sub-levels) The options available to the user were also crude and limited, compared to modern equivalents. The chronological older to newer view is generally associated with forums (the newer to older being associated more akin to blogs).

Subscribtion

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. To option to subscribe is availble for every thread while logged in. Subscriptions works with read marking, namely the property of unread given to most never served to the user by the software.

Private message

A private message is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. The ability to sent so called carbon copys is available sometimes. When sending a carbon copy (cc), the users to whom you sent the message directly won't 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.

Ignore list

A 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 refered to as foe list and ignore list. Usually the posts aren't hidden, but minimized with only a small bar indication a post from the user on your ignore list is there.

Attachment

An attachment can be almost any file. When you attach a file to your post you are basically uploading the file to the forums' server. Forums usually have very strict limit on what you can attach and what you can not and the size of the files in question. Often the feature is disabled (usually by default).

BBCode and HTML

HTML is sometimes allowed but usually it's use is discuraged or when it's used it's extensivily filtered. When HTML is disabled BBCode is the most common prefered 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 italics, [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[/b] is [i]clever[i] [b][i][u]text<[/u][i][/b]

When the post is viewed the code is redered to HTML. Result:

This is clever 'text'.

Emoticon

Main article: Emoticon

Emoticon or smilie is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system though which some of the text representations of a 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, a example would be kaoani (e.g. *(^O^)*, (^-^)b).

Poll

Most forums implement a opinion poll system for threads. A user when creating the thread (and not after) is allowed to add a poll. 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 it's creation. Members vote in a poll and a statistic is displayed graphically.

Shoutbox

Main article: Shoutbox

A shoutbox, saybox, tagboard, or chatterbox is a chat-like feature that allows people to quickly leave messages on the website, generally without any form of user registration. In their simplest form, shoutboxes are simply lists of short messages, possibly with information about their authors. The page may be automatically refreshed after a certain interval, or polled dynamically in order to keep new messages visible. Older posts are often deleted after a certain number of messages have been written in order to preserve space on the server.

RSS and ATOM

RSS and ATOM feeds allow a minimalistic means of subscribing to the forum. Common implementations only allow RSS feads listing the last 10 threads updated for the forum index and the last posts in a thread.

Member list

Present in almost all forums it 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.

Archive

Some forums contain a minimalistic section known as a Archive. All the viewable data in the forum is usually accessable. The purpose of the Archive is search engine optimization. Because search engines will see only the archive when their bots scan the site, subsequent results of searches will lead to the archive, hence the minimalistic style applied for human readability. Forums will usually use a archive because they rely heavily on tables in their design.

Social network functionality

Recent development in some popular implementations of forum software has brought social network features and functionality. Such features include personal gallaries, pages as well as a social network like chat systems.

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 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 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.

History

Forums perform a function similar to that of dial-up bulletin board systems that were common from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Early web-based forums 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, sports, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of topics. Internet slang and image macros popular across the internet are abundant and widely used in internet forums.

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.

In March of 2008 iComment.com introduced browser plugins that allows users post comments to any web object on any web page.

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 and Mambo can also incorporate full-blown forums as plugins or basic features of forums in other portions of their website.

See also

• Hit-and-run posting
• Comparison of Internet forum software
• Imageboard
• irc
• Online consultation
• Online community manager
• Online deliberation
• Virtual community
• Invision Power Board
• Shoutbox
• Social software
• Bulletin board system
• Internet social network
• Social web
• Online research communities
• Chat room
• PhpBB
• vBulletin

External links

Internet forum at Curlie