There are many types of communities out there, for example church, neighborhood, school, and each type of community means different things for different people.  However, there are also online communities that tend to be overlooked when thinking about “community.”  Examples of these online or virtual communities are chat rooms, forum boards, and web sites.  This paper I will focus on forum boards and the communities they form.  I will show the differences between how people communicate online and off-line, some of the advantages and disadvantages of forum boards, as well as what some forums specialize in.

A forum board is a place to post a wide range of topics and, like blogs, the members of the forum reply to your original post.  “Conforms offers Free Remotely Hosted Message Boards which are completely customizable with hundreds of features already built in allowing you to build the kind of web community you want” (conforums.com).  When I got my first computer with internet access, I didn’t know how to do anything with it, or navigate the net for that matter, and I would always get frustrated with the computer.  About two years ago, while surfing, I saw some forums, but at the time, T didn’t know where I was.  I was curious, I signed up to see what these forums where all about.

After I realized what they are and by signing up with several other forums, I found myself in a community that is world-wide.  Although some web sites have a forum, it is mostly controlled by the moderators of the company that owns the site.  On normal forum boards it is mostly laid back, letting you post whatever is on your mind, as long as it’s reasonable.  In some instances the forums are closely monitored, for example, you can’t post any pictures that contain nudity because it goes against the terms of use that you agreed to once you signed up.  However, there is no rule that says that someone can’t post a link to another site up for others to view.

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Copyright Fall 2003