Topic: Why forums are still good! (Read 420 times)

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Great Info. Thanks

Good job! Since you found it already feel free to keep it. 

This is a copy paste plagiarism from this Yahoo! Voices post from 2009:

http://voices.yahoo.com/why-forums-still-good-online-communication-3830132.html?cat=15

The basic concept of an online forum is that it is generally considered a website for people from different countries and backgrounds to meet, join an online social environment and discuss various topics. It can also be a place to share experienced ideas and submit possible solutions to others with specific problems that you may have answers to.

There are different types of forums. One may specifically deal with writers of articles, another with computer (hardware and software) issues, another with family relationships, online business promotions, politics and world affairs, and so on. But within a forum, there is what is called a Board.

A Board is sub-section of the general Forum. For example, a forum may be online for computer related issues. A board may exist within that forum for software programming issues, while another exist for hardware problems and solutions. Within a Business Forum, there may be, for example, a Board that deals with advertising issues while another talks about customer service solutions.

All Forums will have an owner or owners who are often times the Administrators. But they may select among themselves, other members to be Moderators of each Board or a few Boards. For professional Forums and Boards, this is determined by experience in a topic or selected agreed preference. Moderators are essential because they will have to monitor what the Forum and Boards members post to ensure that members are complying with the Terms and Conditions of Use that they agreed to obey when they first signed-up or joined.

Since many people on the internet are not computer experts and may not own a server and other technical computer equipments or tools to start and manage a Forum, they will have to seek a Hosting Website. Many are free for a basic friendly Forum, but the Professional Business Forums will have a paid hosting plan for maximum effective performance and business objective use.

Now to start a forum is easy. You will have to search online for a free hosting or paid professional host. Sign an agreement and then start building the forum and boards. This can take hours, days or weeks. Some people will have a friend or family member with some computer knowledge to help in this process. A good knowledge of HTML, CSS Template issues and other such computer technical language will be necessary. If you make mistakes, some hosting sites will have good customer service online to assist with difficulties. (See - Best Free Forums hosting solutions at: webhostingcase.com/best-free-forum-hosting-solutions).

When you have created a Forum and Boards, for the owners, moderators and member to benefit from it, it has to be promoted. Some of the ways to do this include: using twitter to talk about the Forum to others. Since Twitter is so popular, this is great to use. Most forums owners will have online friends that can help in this regard (to spread the word) so asking them will help. Then social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo and others can assist by posting to blogs or walls to inform and advertise. Search Engines, Traffic Exchanges, PTC Sites, Classifieds, other Forums, Emailing Ads with Safelists, and other modern advertising ways will help a lot. But never forget to keep a consist posting of ideas, issues and solutions to members and the public for your forums and board to grow from the initial stage to popularity.

Therefore, forums are still very essential and helpful to many and different types of people - the regular person and advanced professionals online. Forums and Boards are not very hard to create. But some good knowledge of basic computer skills will be needed. It is essential to decide if you want a simple friendly forum or a professional business-like forum and decide on free hosting or a paid professional plan. In any case, forums will make a very significant difference in your life and those who will join, participate or use the forums in meaningful ways.