An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the web application software used to provide the 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 forums, discussion groups, bulletin boards (but see also dial-up bulletin boards), fora (the proper Latin plural) or simply forums.

Culture

---

Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. In terms of countable posts, Japan is far in the lead with over two million posts per day on their largest forum, 2channel. The United States does not have any one large forum, but instead several hundred thousand smaller forums, the largest of which are GameFAQs, Gaia Online, and IGN. Other countries such as China, the Netherlands, and France are also home to hundreds of independent forums. Some countries such as Finland and Sweden do not have many prevalent forums despite having open and easily available Internet access. As of yet no study has been done on the prevalence of forums in countries around the world. It is also dubious as to whether any country has its own fora, as - especially in the English language - contributors to a forum often come from outside the country in which the forum is hosted. There is often not a 1-1 relationship between languages and countries: for example, English language fora are contributed to by people all over the world, whilst Japanese language fora are likely to be contributed to only by Japanese people, but Japanese people also contribute to English language fora, so there is no 1-1 relationship between Japanese language fora and Japanese people contributing to fora.

More on [ Internet forum ]

Culture - International Herald Tribune

In Hong Kong, 'New Ink Art: Innovation and Beyond'
By ALEXANDRA A. SENO Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
The exhibit, which tracks the evolution of an ancient Chinese medium, runs through Oct. 26 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
With Grafenegg, Austria somersaults onto summer festival circuit
By GEORGE LOOMIS Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
The Grafenegg Festival just outside Vienna hopes to establish itself as a summertime event for classical music lovers.
'The Modern Element' and 'Invasions'
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
The poet-critic Adam Kirsch mounts a defense of poetry at the expense of poetry he disapproves of.
Tony Bennett, Britney Spears, James Levine
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
A roundup of the day's celebrity news.
2 Virginia museums perpetuate debate over U.S. Civil War
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
The Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center argue that the war should be seen, at least in part, from the perspective of the losing side, and that such understanding need not be completely derailed by the moral outrage of slavery.
C�tes du Rh�ne: The modern side to the French wine industry
By ERIC ASIMOV Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:14:32 -0000
Few wines can match C�tes du Rh�ne in exemplifying the myriad changes that have transformed the French wine industry in the last 20 years.

Subscribe to Society_and_Culture RSS feed