Discussion Forums

An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions and posting user generated content, or the web application software used to provide this facility. Web-based forums, which date from around 1995, perform a similar function as the dial-up bulletin boards and Internet newsgroups that were numerous in the 1980s and 1990s. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of different topics Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards fora or simply forums. The term "forum" and "board" may refer to the entire community, or a specific forum within the community.