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

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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.

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NPR Topics: Arts & Culture

Americans Say Oui, Oui To Foreign Graphic Novels
Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:01:00 -0400
Americans don't buy a lot of foreign novels, but go to any neighborhood bookstore and you'll find whole shelves devoted to international comics. In fact, more than half of the graphic novels sold in the U.S. are foreign-language imports.
In Concert, A Moment Of Sudanese Solidarity
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:28:00 -0400
At a time of outright genocide in Darfur, and civil unrest throughout the Sudan, an unprecedented gathering of musicians from across the war-torn country presented a contrasting picture — one of harmony and unity — at the Sudanese Festival of Music and Dance in Chicago.
'Buffy' Creator Proves Doogie Howser Can Sing
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:09:00 -0400
This week, in an unusual first, television producer Joss Whedon unveiled Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a musical comedy written for — and released exclusively on — the Internet.

NYT > Arts

A High-Seas Show With Gay Family Values
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:51:56 -0000
Rosie O’Donnell and friends take a trip on the good ship Mom and Pop.
Theater Review | 'Eh Joe': Words Fail Him, but Memories Can’t Be Silenced
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:49:26 -0000
Although it lasts just half an hour, this staging of a Samuel Beckett piece is one of the most wholly satisfying nights I’ve spent at the theater this year.
Genealogy Records Are Given to Library
Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:50:34 -0000
A New York society is turning over its archives for safekeeping.

Arts & Culture

Turf War
Elizabeth Kolbert Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In 1841, Andrew Jackson Downing published the first landscape-gardening book aimed at an American audience. At the time, Downing was twenty-five years old and living in Newburgh, New York. He owned a nursery, which he had inherited from his father, and for several years had been publishing loftily . . .
The Theatre
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER Second Stage’s Uptown Series concludes with this play by Rajiv Joseph, an origami-themed love story. Giovanna Sardelli directs. In previews. (McGinn/Cazale, Broadway at 76th St. 212-246-4422.) AROUND . . .
The Sister
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
This suspenseful first novel is set in a crumbling Dorset mansion and features two aging sisters, reunited after a separation of nearly fifty years. Virginia is the sensible older sister who stayed, carrying on the family tradition of lepidopterology, while the reckless and free-spirited Vivien left to lead a . . .

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