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 > Television

DVD: Not-Quite-Flying Nuns, and Other Salvaged Skits
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:18:21 -0000
Long before he became an unlikely movie star, Dudley Moore made his mark teaming up with the comedian Peter Cook in a BBC series called “Not Only ... but Also.”
Television: Three Roles, One Energetic Actor
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:33:28 -0000
“Summer Heights High,” an Australian comedy that has its premiere Nov. 9 on HBO, ventures close to reality in testing boundary-pushing topics at a high school.
The Things Their Families Carried
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:11:01 -0000
HBO’s “Section 60,” named for the part of Arlington National Cemetery where the war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are being buried, is full of stark vignettes.

L.A. Times - TV News

These days, even 'The View' is getting political
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The overheated presidential campaign has become a hot topic on entertainment programs. W HEN Sherri Shepherd and her cohorts on ABC's "The View" start screaming at one another about the Weather Underground, a 1960s radical-left group that bombed the Pentagon, it appears as if something strange has leaked into the American water supply.
'My Own Worst Enemy'
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Christian Slater is great fun in a dual role as a secret agent who happens to share a body with a suburban dad. It may feel like Christian Slater has been missing in action for a while, but that's not precisely true. If he hasn't made the splash his early roles in "Pump Up the Volume" and "Heathers" seemed to promise, he's worked pretty steadily, showing up in high-profile films such as "Bobby" and "The Good Shepherd" and doing TV work on "The West Wing" and "Alias."
'Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery'
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
In "Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery," the stepfather of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan remembers the moments just before his wife got the dreadful notification.

News from TV.com

Knight Rider vrooms closer to pickup
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:48:00 -0700
NBC sends good message to bad show, picks up order for more scripts; will Knight ride on?
Top Model's Jay and J getting own catwalk
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:18:00 -0700
Consultants on Model will make over women; Rock of Love 2 loser wins own show.
V, rodent swallowing returning to TV
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:29:00 -0700
ABC, 4400 producer remaking classic sci-fi miniseries featuring alien lizards in human disguise.

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