Review of 2008

[johninblack]

Never mind that, here's everything you ever wanted to know about internet fora.

Internet forum

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site.[1] It is the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system.[2][3] From a technological standpoint, forums[note 1] or boards are web applications managing user-generated content.[4][5]

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other and interest groups will easily form around a topic's discussion, subjects dealt within or around sections in the forum.

Registration or anonymity

In the United States and some parts of Europe, most Internet forums require registration to post. 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 one's age (typically over 12 is required so as to meet COPPA requirements of American forum software) followed by a declaration of the terms of service (other documents may also be present) and a request for agreement to said terms.[6][7][8] Subsequently, if all goes well, the candidate is presented with a web form to fill requesting at the very least: a username (an alias), password, email and validation of a CAPTCHA code.

While simply completing the registration web form is – usually – enough to generate an account[note 2] 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 one or otherwise "helped someone" with the decision to join the site (similarly how a HTTP referer is the site who linked one to 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.[9] The purpose is commonly just to give credit (sometimes rewards are implied) to those who help the community grow.

On Asian Internet forums, especially in China and Japan, registration is frequently optional and anonymity is sometimes even encouraged.[10] On these forums, a tripcode system may be used to allow verification of an identity without the need for formal registration.

Rules and policies on forums

Forums are governed by a set of individuals, commonly referred to as administrators, which are responsible for the forums' conception, technical maintenance and policies. Most forums have a list of rules 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.

Rules on forum usually apply to the entire user body and often have preset exceptions, most commonly designating a section as an exception. For example, in an IT forum any discussion regarding anything but computer programming languages may be outlawed, with the exception of a general chat section.

Forum rules are maintained and enforced by the moderation team, but users are allowed to help out via what's known as a report system. Most American forum software contains such a system.[11][12] It consists of a small function applicable to each post (including one's own). Using it will notify all currently available moderators of its location, and subsequent action or judgment can be carried out immediately, which is desirable in large or very developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the private message system if they wish to report behavior. Moderators will generally frown upon attempts of moderation by non-moderators, especially when the would-be moderators do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators generally declare a post as against the rules, or predict punishment. While not harmful, statements which attempt to enforce the rules are discouraged.[13]

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 possible for it to be integrated into the software. Subsequently, if the act is ignored and warnings do not work, the member is – usually – first exiled from the forum for a number of days. Denying someone access to the site is called a ban (as in "you have been banished"). Bans can mean the person can no longer log in or even view the site anymore. If the offender, after the warning sentence, repeats the offense, another ban is given, usually this time a longer one. Continuous 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 permanently banned – creates another account and continues to harass the site, administrators will apply an IP ban (this can also be applied at the server level): if the IP is static, the machine of the offender is prevented from accessing the site. In some extreme circumstances, IP range bans or country bans can be applied; however, this is usually for political, licensing or other reasons. See also: Block (internet), IP blocking, Internet censorship.

Offending content is usually deleted. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem, it is locked; often a poster may request a topic expected to draw problems to be locked as well, although the moderators decide whether to grant it. In a locked thread, members cannot post anymore. In cases where the topic is considered a breach of rules it – with all of its posts – may be deleted.

Troll

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

   
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.

Some forums consider posts consisting solely 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 are not 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.

Word censor

A word censoring system is commonly included in the forum software package. The system will pick up words in the body of the post or some other user editable forum element (like user titles) and if they partially match a certain keyword (commonly no case sensitivity) they will be censored. The most common censoring is letter replacement with an asterisk character; for example: in the user title it is deemed inappropriate for users to use words such as "admin", "moderator", "leader" and so on, if the censoring system is implemented a title such as "forum leader" may be filtered to "forum ******". Extremely rude or vulgar words are common targets for the censoring system

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

Internally, American-style forums organise visitors and logged in members into user groups. Privileges 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 than just posting messages.[16]

An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a guest or 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.[note 3] A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum, a section or even a thread is referred to as a lurker and the habit is referred to as lurking. Registered members often will refer to themselves 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.

Posters

The posters to the forum are considered the driving force behind the community. On some forums, a poster may edit or delete his or her own posts, although sometimes these rights are reserved.

Western-style forums often allow an avatar and signature. The avatar is generally a small image often limited to 80x80 pixels (other common dimensions include 100x100 and 90x90 pixels) and limited to a certain filesize (6 kilobytes and 50 kilobytes are common) displayed below a user's username. The forum signature (or sig) consists of text and/or images defined by the user and appended at the end of each of his posts. Both fundamentally are just expressions of the user's creativity, although many forums extend their rules to signatures.

Specialized forums like to split the members into specific groups; a military-themed group, for example, may use military-style ranks, with basic members as 'privates' while administrators would be styled as 'generals', and moderators may bear the title 'MP'. These titles are usually displayed below the username or avatar, and also indicate which members have which access.

Moderator

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 in their area of responsibility, it is common for a knowledgeable and trustworthy member to be promoted to moderator for such a task. Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as responding to specific complaints.[17] Moderators themselves may have ranks: some may be given mod privilege over only a particular topic or section, while others (called 'global' or 'super') may be allowed access anywhere. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads; closing, renaming, stickying of threads; banning, unbanning, warning the members; or adding, editing, removing the polls of threads.[18]

Administrator

The administrators (short form: "admin") manage the technical details required for running the site. As such, they may promote (and demote) members to moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations (database backup etc). Administrators often also act as moderators. Administrators may also make forum-wide announcements, or change the appearance (known as the skin) of a forum.[18]

The term prune used extensively in administration panels is synonymous 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 user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as boxes one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the original post, or OP. Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not unknown for discussions to be derailed.

On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations the Asian style of displaying the members' details above the post has been copied.

Posts have an internal limit usually measured in characters. Often one is required to have a message of minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an 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 collection of posts, usually displayed – by default – from oldest to latest, although the option for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarise the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation 'OP', which can also mean opening poster) which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. 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 receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a bump or bumping. Threads which are important but rarely receive posts are stickyed (or, in some software, 'pinned'). A sticky thread will always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section.

A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one – the opening post) counts. Some forums also track page views. Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views, preset by the forums administrators, receives the name of "hot thread" and usually display a different icon compared to others threads, not meeting the criteria. Most of the above is either not relevant or just totally ignored on certain fora where all the members are lovely, sensible, intelligent adults who enjoy Frost*

[RacingHippo]

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other

Ooh! Anyone want to form a bond with me? Please? Anyone?

[Geetar]

The coldest blood runs through my veins
You know my name

[Mikey]

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other

Ooh! Anyone want to form a bond with me? Please? Anyone?

Band? sure

[johninblack]

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other

Ooh! Anyone want to form a bond with me? Please? Anyone?

Band? sure

Who's playing what then?

[Mikey]

People participating in an Internet forum can build bonds with each other

Ooh! Anyone want to form a bond with me? Please? Anyone?

Band? sure

Who's playing what then?

I'll be playing the fool

[Geetar]

Band? sure

If it's here in Florida, it'd better be a lap-band.

[rogerg]

Bond.

James Bond.

[Philadelphia]

The coldest blood runs through my veins
You know my name

I know your name! It's Geetar! (it'll come in handy when we form that band)

[LivingForever]

Now hang on a minute... you promised to join a band with me and Keith and Racing Hippo! Which is it to be? Or did you all kick me out and not tell me?  :shock:

[Philadelphia]

Now hang on a minute... you promised to join a band with me and Keith and Racing Hippo! Which is it to be? Or did you all kick me out and not tell me?  :shock:

I'm still up for it. We've got the first band photo all ready and everything!

[RacingHippo]

Now hang on a minute... you promised to join a band with me and Keith and Racing Hippo! Which is it to be? Or did you all kick me out and not tell me?  :shock:

I'm still up for it. We've got the first band photo all ready and everything!

Just make sure you don't get yourself booked for both bands on the same night in different places...  :shock:

[Pedro]

Now hang on a minute... you promised to join a band with me and Keith and Racing Hippo! Which is it to be? Or did you all kick me out and not tell me?  :shock:

I'm still up for it. We've got the first band photo all ready and everything!

Just make sure you don't get yourself booked for both bands on the same night in different places...  :shock:

No-one would do that, would they?

[rogerg]

Now hang on a minute... you promised to join a band with me and Keith and Racing Hippo! Which is it to be? Or did you all kick me out and not tell me?  :shock:

I'm still up for it. We've got the first band photo all ready and everything!

Just make sure you don't get yourself booked for both bands on the same night in different places...  :shock:

No-one would do that, would they?

no, but a super-human mutant guitarist might.

[Mouse]

...What's going on?