What Is A Web Forum?

Date First Published: 2nd November 2023

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Easy

Difficulty Level: 3/10

CONTENTS

Moderation
Popularity

Learn about what a web forum is in this article.

A web forum, also known as a message board, or a discussion board, is a place on the Web where people can post questions and answers on a specific topic or activity. A forum is not to be confused with a chatroom, where messages are shorter, displayed in real-time, and less focused on a specific topic.

In a forum, each discussion is known as a thread and can be replied to as many people as possible. To prevent people from replying to old threads which have already been discussed, threads may automatically lock and archive after a certain period of time. On most forums, people have to register with the forum and log in to post messages and start threads. Once registered, the member chooses their username and avatar. Users often do not have to log in to read existing messages.

Some forums are focused on a single topic, like specific products and services, whilst other forums, like Quora and Reddit, are focused on almost all subjects. Threads are usually categorised by topic and subtopic to help people find the answers they are looking for. Web forums help build an online community by offering engagement with others and allowing people to learn from each other.

Moderation

Forums often allow anyone to start a new thread or reply to a question and are publicly viewable. This creates a risk of harmful or inappropriate content. Therefore, forums are usually moderated by a community of volunteer moderators, who will remove or lock inappropriate or harmful posts. Although this can be a large task for popular forums, most forum software can detect and filter out inappropriate content.

If the moderators are not active, this can result in forums being filled with inappropriate content. On the other hand, overly strict moderators can make some people feel their freedom of speech is restricted. Sometimes, posted messages might need to be approved by a moderator before they become publicly visible. Users will usually need to follow certain rules in forums, such as netiquette.

Common privileges of moderators include the ability to delete, merge, lock, move, and split posts and threads, banning, unbanning, and warning the members.

Popularity

Due to the constant growth of forums, they have become a large part of the Web and there is a good chance that one or more forum pages will appear in the search results when searching for help on a specific topic. However, forums have lost part of their popularity due to social networks, which can also be used to have discussions.