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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NYT > Theater

Theater Review | 'Noon Day Sun': That Southern Belle of Detroit Is a Woman of Mystery
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:25:15 -0000
The melodrama is high, and so is the cliché count in “Noon Day Sun,” an exploration of racial identity and related themes that is as seductive as a soap opera.
Theater Review | 'Hattie ... What I Need You to Know': The Triumph and Pain of a Hollywood Trailblazer
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:00:51 -0000
“Hattie ... What I Need You to Know” attempts to tackle what it meant that the first African-American to win an Academy Award did so playing a loyal slave.
Theater: The Human Condition, Often in Need of Repair
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:23:01 -0000
Reviews of New York International Fringe Festival plays, including “The Alice Complex” and “Zombie.”
Theater Review | 'Désir': Liaisons Dangereuses and Bodies Acrobatic
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:04:41 -0000
If the televised Olympics are too sanitary and the hole-in-the-wall strip clubs too sleazy for your tastes, then perhaps you’ll find voyeuristic contentment in “Désir.”
Theater Review | 'Elizabeth Rex': Shakespeare Cast Party by Royal Command
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:28:18 -0000
There’s a ripping good performance taking place in a barn on West 21st Street in Manhattan. The play is “Elizabeth Rex.”
Theater Review | Summer Shorts 2, Series B: The Stage Is Alive With the Sound of Cells
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:31:50 -0000
“PeopleSpeak,” a witty and acerbic play, is the best of Series B of the Summer Shorts 2 festival at 59E59 Theaters.

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