An Internet forum , or message board , is an online discussion site where people can have conversations in the form of a posted message. They are different from chat rooms in messages that are often longer than a line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the user's access level or forum settings, messages posted may need to be approved by a moderator before they are visible.
The Forum has a special set of jargon associated with it; example: one conversation called "thread" or topic .
Discussion forums are hierarchical or tree-like structures: a forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which has several topics. In forum topics, every new discussion begins called a thread, and can be answered by as many people as possible.
Depending on the forum settings, the user may become anonymous or must register to the forum and then log in to send the message. In most forums, users do not have to login to read existing messages.
Video Internet forum
Histori
Modern forums come from bulletin boards, and so-called computer conferencing systems, and are a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, the forum or board is a web app that manages user-generated content.
Initial internet forums can be described as web versions of electronic mailing lists or newsgroups (such as those on Usenet); allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Further developments mimic different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum, dedicated to a particular topic.
Internet forums are prevalent in some developed countries. Japan posts the most with more than two million per day in their largest forum, 2channel. China also has millions of posts on forums like Tianya Club.
Some of the first forum systems were the Planet-Forum system, developed in the early 1970s, the EIES system, first operating in 1976, and the KOM system, first operating in 1977.
One of the first forum sites, and still active today, is the Delphi Forum, which used to be called Delphi (an online service). This service, with four million members, comes from 1983.
The Forum performs a function similar to the Usenet dial-up bulletin board system and the first Usenet network made from the late 1970s. Web-based forums since 1994, with WIT projects from the W3 Consortium and from now on, many alternatives are created. The sense of virtual communities often evolves around forums that have regular users. Technology, video games, sports, music, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a large number of topics. Internet and image macros are popular on the Internet abundant and widely used in internet forums.
The forum software package is widely available on the Internet and is written in various programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java, and ASP. Configuration and posting notes can be stored in a text file or in a database. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, provides only text posts, to more sophisticated packages, offers multimedia support and format codes (commonly known as BBCode). Many packages can be integrated easily into existing websites to allow visitors to post comments on articles.
Some other web applications, such as weblog software, also include forum features. The WordPress comment at the bottom of the blog post allows for a single threaded discussion of any given blog post. Slashcode, on the other hand, is much more complicated, allowing thoroughly thorough discussions and incorporating a strong moderation and meta-moderation system as well as the many profile features available to forum users.
Some of the stand-alone threads on the forums have achieved fame and notability like "I am lonely there will be a talk to me" thread on the MovieCodec.com forum, described as "web top hanging out for lonely people" by Wired Magazine.
Maps Internet forum
Structure
Forums consist of tree-like directory structures. The top end is "Category". Forums can be divided into categories for relevant discussions. Under the category are sub-forums and these sub-forums can have more sub-forums. The topics are below the lowest level of the sub-forum and this is the place where members can start a discussion or post . Logical forums are organized into a limited set of general topics (usually with one main topic) that are encouraged and updated by a group known as members , and organized by a group known as moderator . It can also have a graph structure. 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 the messages are not related to each other at all, the Non-Threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and some replies to that message topic, the semi-threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and replied to the topic of the message, and replied to a reply, then the full threaded format is best.
User group
Internally, Western-style forums organize visitors and enter members into user groups. Privileges and rights are granted on these groups. Users of the forum can be automatically promoted to a more privileged user group based on the criteria set by the administrator. Someone who sees a closed thread as a member will see a box saying that he has no right to post there, but a moderator will likely see the same box give him access to more than just post message.
Users of unregistered sites are generally known as guests or visitors . Guests are usually granted access to all functions that do not require database changes or violate privacy. A guest can usually view forum contents or use features such as read mark , but sometimes administrators will forbid visitors to read their forums as an incentive to become a registered member. A person who frequently visits forums, sections or even threads is referred to as a lurker and the habit is referred to as stalking . Registered members will often refer to themselves as stalking in a particular location, meaning they have no intention of participating in that section but are happy to read contributions to it.
Moderator
moderator (short singular form: "mod") is the user (or employee) of the forum granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderate discussion (similar to arbitration) and also keep the forum clean (neutralize spam and spambots, etc.). Moderators also address user concerns about forums, common questions, and respond to specific complaints. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and sharing posts and threads, locking, renaming, gripping strands, banning, suspending, canceling, canceling restrictions, alerting members, or adding, editing, deleting polls from threads. "Modding Junior", "Backseat Modding", or "Forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.
Basically, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the daily affairs of a forum or forum that applies to the flow of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of the forum in general, its attractiveness, and its usefulness as an interconnected user community.
Administrator
The administrator (short form: "admin") manages the technical details required to run the site. Thus, they can promote (and lower) members to/from moderators, manage rules, create parts and sub-sections, and perform any database operations (database backups etc.). Administrators often also act as moderators. Administrators can also make announcements across the forum, or change the look (known as skin) of a forum. There are also many forums where administrators share their knowledge.
Post
Post is a message the user sends into the block containing the user details and the date and time of delivery. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one by one. The first post starts the thread; this can be called TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). The writing that follows in the thread is meant to continue the discussion of the post, or to respond to another reply; not infrequently the discussion will be derailed.
In the Western forum, the classic way to display the details of its own members (such as names and avatars) is on the left side of the post, in a narrow column with a fixed width, with the post control on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In newer forum software implementations, Asian style displays the member details above the post have been copied.
Posts have internal boundaries that are usually measured in characters. Often a person is required to have a message with a minimum length of 10 characters. There's always an upper limit but it's rarely achieved - most boards have it at 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters.
Most forums track the number of user visitors. Postcount is a measurement of how many posts are made by a particular user. Users with higher postcount are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcount counts, but not always. For example some forums have disabled the number of posts in the hope that it will emphasize the quality of information rather than quantity.
Thread
The thread (sometimes called topic ) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from the oldest to the latest, although this can usually be configured: Options for the latest to longest and for screw view similar to trees that implement logical reward structures before chronological order) can be available. Thread is defined by title, additional description which can summarize the intended discussion, and opening or original post (common abbreviation OP , which can also mean original poster ), which opens any dialog or makes any announcements that the poster wants. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.
Bumping
A thread is contained in a forum, and may have a related date taken as the last posting date (option to order thread with other criteria generally available). When a member posts in a thread, it will jump to the top as this is the latest updated thread. Similarly, the other threads will jump in front of them when they receive the shipment. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go up, it's called as a bump or crashing . It has been suggested that "bump" is an acronym of "open my post"; However, this is almost certainly backronym and its usage is entirely consistent with the verb "bump" which means "to knock to a new position".
In some messageboards, the user can select sage (correctly pronounced /sa-? E/ even though it is often mistaken as IPA: Ã, [se? D?] ) a post if they want to make a post but do not "bump" me t. The word "sage" comes from the 2channel terminology ??? sageru , which means "downgrade".
Stickying
An important but infrequently received thread is sticky ed (or, in some software, "pinned"). A sticky thread will always appear in front of a normal thread, often on its own. "Threaded discussion groups" are just a group of individuals who use forums for the purpose of chain or asynchronous discussion. This group may or may not be the only forum user.
The popularity of the thread is measured on the forum in reply (total posts minus one, opening posts, in most of the forum default settings) are calculated. Some forums also keep track of page views. Threads that meet a number of posts or a set number of views can receive a designation like "hot thread" and are displayed with different icons compared to other threads. This icon may be more prominent to emphasize the thread. If a forum user has lost interest on a particular thread, it becomes dead thread .
Discussion
Forums prefer the premise of open and free discussion and often adopt the de facto standard. The most common topics in the forum include questions, comparisons, polls, and also debates. Not infrequently the nonsense or non-social behavior sprouts when people lose patience, especially if the topic is controversial. A poor understanding of the participants' difference values ​​is a common problem in forums. Because replies to a topic often take precedence addressed to a person's point of view, the discussion will usually be a few directions when people question the validity of each, the source, and so on. Circular discussion and ambiguity in reply can extend to several tens of posts from a thread that eventually ends when everyone gives up or faltering attention span and a more interesting subject takes over. Not infrequently the debate ends in an ad hominem attack.
Owner and moderator liability
Several lawsuits have been filed against forums and moderators who claim defamation and damages. The recent case is a scubaboard lawsuit in which businesses in the Maldives filed suit against scubaboard for defamation 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 Decision Act, which states that "[n] the provider or user of the interactive computer service will be treated as a publisher or speaker of any information provided by other content information providers. "
General features
By default to become an Internet forum, web apps need the ability to send threads and replies. Usually, newer threads to the older view, and replies in the older view to the newer ones.
Tripcodes and capcodes
In a tripcode system, a secret password added to a username follows a separator character (often a numeric digit). These passwords, or travel codes, are hashed into special keys, or trips, can be distinguished from names based on HTML styles. Tripcodes can not be faked but on some types of forum software they are unsafe and predictable. On other types, they can be forced with software designed to look up travel codes like Tripcode Explorer.
Moderators and administrators will often assign their own capcodes, or tripcodes where predictable trips are replaced with special notifications (such as "# Administrator"), or close.
Private message
A private message , or PM for short, is a message sent personally from member to one or more other members. The ability to send so-called blind carbon copies is sometimes available. When sending blind carbon copy (bcc), users sent messages directly will not be aware of the blind carbon blind recipient or even if one is sent in the first place.
Personal messages are generally used for private conversations. They can also be used with travel codes - messages addressed to public travel and can be retrieved by typing in travel codes.
Attachments
Attachments can be almost any file. When someone attaches a file to someone's post, they upload the file to the forum server. Forums usually have very strict limits on what can be attached and what can not (including the questionable file sizes). Attachments can be part of a thread, a social group, etc.,
BBCode and HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is sometimes allowed but usually its use is not recommended or when allowed, it is widely filtered. Modern bulletin board systems will often make it disabled entirely or may only be used by administrators, as enabling them at the normal user level is considered a security risk due to the high level of XSS vulnerability. When HTML is disabled, Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is the most common alternative option. BBCode usually consists of tags, similar to HTML only, not & lt; and & gt; tagname is enclosed by square brackets (meaning: [ and ] ). Usually [i] is used for italic type, [b] is used for bold, [u] for underline, [color = "value"] for color and [list] for list, and [img] for image and [url] for link.
The following example BBCode: [b] This [/b] is [i] smart [/i] [b] [i] text [/i] [/b] when posting is viewed code rendered to HTML and will appear as: This is smart text .
Many forum packages offer a way to create Custom BBCodes, or BB codes not included in the package, where forum administrators can create complex BBCodes to allow the use of JavaScript or iframe functionality in posts, such as embed YouTube or Google Video complete with live viewers to the post.
Emoticon
An emoticon or smiley is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written form or message. Forums implement systems through which multiple text representations of emoticons (eg xD , : p ) are given as thumbnails. Depending on which part of the world the forum topics come from (as most forums are international) smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphs, for example kaoani (eg * (^ O ^) * , (^ - ^) b ), or even text between special symbols (eg: blink :, Ã,: idea :).
Polling
Most forums implement polling systems for threads. Most implementations allow single or multi-choice selections (sometimes limited to certain numbers) when selecting options as well as private or public voter views. The poll may be set to expire after a certain date or in some cases after several days of its creation. Members vote in polls and statistics displayed graphically.
RSS and ATOM
RSS and ATOM feeds allow minimalist means of subscribing to forums. The general implementation allows RSS feeds to list only the last few updated threads for the forum index and the last post in the thread.
Other features
The ignore list allows members to hide posts from other members they do not want to see or have issues with. In most implementations, they are referred to as enemy list or list ignore . Usually posts are not hidden, but minimized by just a small bar that shows posts from users on the list of ignore there. Almost all Internet forums include a list of members, which allows viewing of all forum members, with integrated search feature. Some forums will not register members with 0 posts, even if they have activated their account.
Many forums allow users to provide themselves avatars . Avatar is the image that appears next to all user posts, to make the user better known. Users can upload images to a forum database, or can provide links to images on separate websites. Each forum has limits on the height, width, and size of the avatar data that can be used; if the user tries to use an avatar that is too large, it can be minimized or rejected.
Similarly, most forums allow users to define signature (sometimes called sig ), which is a text block, possibly with BBCode, which appears at the bottom of all user posts. There is a character limit on the signature, although it may be so high that it is rarely hit. Often forum moderators enact manual rules about signatures to prevent them from getting annoying (eg, getting very old or having blinking images), and issuing warnings or restrictions to users who violate this rule. Like an avatar, signatures can improve the ability to recognize posters. They also allow users to attach information to all their posts, such as proclaiming support for a reason, noting facts about themselves, or quoting funny things that had previously been said in the forum.
Public on forums, subscriptions are automated notification forms integrated into software from most forums. Usually notify either by email or on site when member returns. The option to subscribe is available for each thread when signing in. Subscriptions work with read mark , an unread property , which is assigned to content that was never presented to the user by the software.
Recent developments in some forum software implementations have brought social network features and functionality . These features include personal galleries, pages, and also social networks like chat systems. Most forum software is now fully customizable with the "hacks" or "modifications" available to fit a person's forums to the needs of their members.
Often forums use "cookies", or information about user behavior on sites sent to the user's browser and used when logging back into the site. This is done to facilitate automatic login and to show users whether a thread or forum has received new posts since their last visit. This can be disabled or deleted at any time.
Rules and policies
The forum is governed by a group of individuals, collectively referred to as staff , composed of administrators and moderators , responsible for forum 'conceptions, technical maintenance, and policies (manufacture and enforcement). Most forums have a list of rules that explain the desires, goals, and guidelines of the forum's creators. There is usually also a FAQ section that contains basic information for new members and people who are not familiar with forum usage and principles (generally customized for specific forum software).
The rules in the forum usually apply to the entire body of the user and often have predefined exceptions, most often pointing to the sections as exceptions. For example, in an IT forum, discussions about anything but computer programming languages ​​may violate the rules, with the exception of the general chat section.
Forum rules are maintained and enforced by moderation teams, but users are allowed to help through what is known as a reporting system. Most American forum software contains such systems. It consists of a small function that applies to every post (including its own). Using it will notify all currently available moderators of their location, and further action or assessment may be made immediately, which is particularly desirable in large or highly developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the private messaging system if they want to report behavior. Moderators will generally reject moderation attempts by non-moderators, especially when prospective moderators do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators generally state the post as a violation of the rules, or predict a penalty. Although not harmful, statements attempting to enforce rules are not recommended.
When the rules are broken some steps are generally taken. First, a warning is usually given; this is usually in the form of personal messages but recent developments have enabled it to be integrated into the software. After this, if the action is ignored and the warning is not working, members - usually - are first exiled from the forum for several days. Rejecting someone's access to the site is called ban . A ban may mean the person can no longer log in or even view the site again. If the offender, after a warning sentence, repeats the offense, another prohibition is given, usually this time is longer. Continuous harassment of the site ultimately leads to a permanent ban. In many cases, this means that the account is locked. In extreme cases where the offender - once banned permanently - creates another account and continues to interfere with the site, the administrator will impose a ban on address or IP blocking (this can also be applied at the server level): If the IP address is static, the offending machine is prohibited from accessing the site. In some extreme circumstances, IP address range restrictions or state bans can be applied; this is usually for political reasons, permissions, or other reasons. See also: Block (Internet), IP address blocking, and Internet censorship.
Offensive content is usually removed. Sometimes if a topic is considered the source of the problem, it is locked ; often posters may ask for the expected topic to draw the problem to be locked too, although the moderator decides whether to grant it. In thread locked , members can not post anymore. In cases where the topic is deemed to violate that rule - with all its posts - can be removed.
Troll
The troll forum is a user who repeatedly and intentionally violates netiquette from an established online community, posts inflammatory, foreign, or off-topic messages to lure or excite users in response to or test forum rules and policies , and with it the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behavior has the potential to start a fiery war (see below) or other distractions. Responding to troll provocation is commonly known as 'feed troll' and is generally not recommended, as it may encourage their annoying behavior.
Sock puppet
The term sock puppet refers to some pseudonyms used by the same person on a message board or a particular forum. The sock puppet analogy is a puppeteer who raises both hands and supplies dialogue to both puppets simultaneously. The typical use of a sockpuppet account is to approve or debate another sockpuppet account belonging to the same person, for the purpose of strengthening the dalang's position in an argument. Sock puppets are usually found when IP address checks are performed on accounts in forums.
Spamming
Spamming forum is a netiquette violation in which users repeat the same word or phrase over and over again, but different from some posts in spamming which is usually a deliberate act that sometimes has malicious intent. This is a common trolling technique. It can also be traditional spam, unpaid advertising that violates forum rules. Spammers use a number of illicit techniques to post their spam, including the use of botnets.
Some forums consider a short post, comment-oriented post, such as Thank You , Awesome or I like it .
Double posting
One common carelessness in Internet forums is sending the same message twice. Users sometimes post slightly different versions of messages, especially in forums where they are not allowed to edit their previous posts. Double posting instead of editing previous entries can increase the number of user entries artificially. Double posting can be unintentional; the user's browser may display an error message even though the post has been posted or the slow forum users may become impatient and repeatedly hit the submit button. An offline editor can post the same message twice. Multiple posts can also be used as a method of trolling or spreading forum spam. Users can also post the same to several forums, called crossposting. The term is derived from Usenet, where crossposting is an accepted practice but causes problems in web forums, which do not have the ability to link the post so that replies in one forum are not visible to the person reading the post in another forum.
Necroposting
Necropost is a reviving message (as in necromancy) an arbitrary old thread, causing it to appear above the newer and more active thread. This practice is generally seen as a netiquette breach in most forums. Because older circuits are usually unlocked from further posting, necroposting is common to new users and in cases where previous post dates are not visible.
The word sensor
Word sensor systems are usually included in forum software packages. The system will retrieve words in the post body or some user-editable forum elements (such as user titles), and if they partially match certain keywords (usually no case sensitivity) they will be censored. The most common censorship is the replacement of letters with asterisk characters. For example, in user titles, it is considered inappropriate for users to use words like "admin", "moderator", "leader", and so on. If the sensor system is applied, titles such as "forum leader" can be filtered to "forum ******". Rant or vulgar words are common targets for sensor systems. But such automatic sensors can make mistakes, such as censoring "wris twat ch" to "wris **** ch" and "S cunt horpe" to "S * *** horpe. "
Flame wars
When a thread - or in some cases, the entire forum - becomes unstable, the result is uncontrolled spam in the form of a line of complaints, image macros, or abuse of the reporting system. When the discussion gets hot and the parties do nothing but complain and do not accept their differences in perspective, the discussion degenerates into what is called a fire war. To flame a person means going off the topic and attacking the person rather than their opinion. Possible candidates for fire warfare are usually religious and socio-political topics, or topics that address competition that already exists outside the forum (eg, Competition between games, console systems, car manufacturers, nationalities, etc.).
When a topic that has been turned into a flame war is considered the same as a forum (whether it's part or all of the board), spam and fire have an opportunity to spread beyond the topic and cause problems, usually in the form of vandalism. Some forums (usually forum games) have suffered from wide-fire fire forums soon after their conception, due to an existing element of fire war in the online community. Many forums have created a special area for discussion of potential moderated moderate-fire topics as usual. Registration or anonymity
Almost all internet forums require registration to post. Registered users of this site are referred to as members and are permitted to send or send electronic messages through web applications. The registration process involves verifying a person's age (usually more than 12 required so as to meet COPPA requirements of the American forum software) followed by a terms of service statement (other documents may also exist) and a request for approval to say the term. Furthermore, if all goes well, the candidate is presented with a web form to fill in requesting at least a CAPTCHA user name (alias), password, email and CAPTCHA code validation.
While only filling out a web registration form is generally sufficient to generate an account, the status label Off is usually provided by default until a registered user confirms the email address provided when the register belongs to the user. Until then, registered users may sign in to new accounts but may not post, reply to, or post private messages in forums.
Sometimes the referrer system is implemented. A referrer is someone who introduces or "helps someone" with the decision to join the site (also, how an HTTP referrer is a site that links one to another site). Typically, referrals are members of other forums and members are usually rewarded for reference. The referrer system is also sometimes applied so that, if visitors visit the forum via links like referrerid = 300 , users with id numbers (in this example, 300) will receive referral credits if the visitor signs up. The goal is generally just to give credit (sometimes an implied reward) to those who help the community grow.
In areas such as Japan, enrollment is often optional and anonymity is sometimes even recommended. In this forum, tripcode systems can be used to enable identity verification without the need for formal registration. People who regularly read forum discussions but do not register or do not post are often referred to as "vandals".
Comparison with other web apps
Electronic mailing lists: The main difference between forums and electronic mailing lists is mailing lists that automatically send new messages to subscribers, while forums ask readers to visit websites and check for new posts. Because members may miss out on replies in the threads they are interested in, many modern forums offer an "e-mail notification" feature, where members can choose to be notified about new posts in threads, and web feeds that allow members to view a summary of new posts using software aggregators. There are also software products that incorporate forum features and mailing lists, ie post and read via email as well as the browser depending on the member's choice.
Newsreader: The main difference between newsgroups and forums is that additional software, News clients, are required to participate in newsgroups whereas using forums does not require any additional software outside the web browser.
Shoutbox: Unlike internet forums, most shoutbox do not require registration, requiring only email addresses from users. Also, shoutbox is not very moderated, unlike most message boards.
Wikis: Unlike conventional forums, native wikis allow all users to edit all content (including messages to each other). This level of content manipulation is reserved for moderators or administrators in most forums. The wiki also allows the creation of other content outside of the talk page. On the other hand, weblogs and generic content management systems tend to be locked to the point where only a select few users can post blog posts, although many allow other users to comment on them. The Wiki hosting site known as Wikia has two features in operation, known as Forum and Message Wall. This forum is only used for discussion and works through editing, while the message wall works through posted messages more similar to traditional forums.
Chat rooms and instant messaging: Forums are different from chat and instant messaging in the forum, participants do not have to be online simultaneously to receive or send messages. Messages posted to a forum are publicly available for some time even if the forum or thread is closed, which is unusual in the chat room that maintains frequent activity.
One scarcity among forums is the ability to create an image album. Forum participants can upload personal photos to the site and add descriptions to images. Images may be in the same format as posting a thread, and containing the same options as "Report Post" and "Reply Post".
See also
Note
Example
References
External links
- Xenforo Forum
- Delphi Forum
- Adobe forum setup guide
- Posting Policy Policy Martin Purga
- Ubuntu Forums: BUMP Thread
- Threadbombing: Bump Image
- Why people like to use Internet forums
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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