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: Technology

New Solar Cell Easy As Pizza To Make
Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:16:00 -0400
The iJET is a new type of solar cell that's cheap and easy to make, requiring not much more than a pizza oven, some nail polish remover, and a common inkjet printer. Australian scientist Nicole Kuepper describes her invention.
SpaceX Celebrates First Successful Rocket Launch
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0400
SpaceX's flagship Falcon1 rocket has successfully launched from an island in the central Pacific, becoming the first privately-developed rocket to orbit the planet. NASA has already contracted SpaceX to begin private space flight missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2010.
Northeast States Trade Carbon Emission Credits
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:46:00 -0400
A consortium of Northeast states has completed the first cap-and-trade greenhouse gas auction in the U.S. Under cap-and-trade, limits are set on emissions. Companies that do not use up their quota of emissions are able to sell their excess emission capacity to other companies.

L.A. Times - Technology News

EBay to cut 10% of workforce, buy 3 firms for $1.3 billion; shares slide
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The online auction firm plans to lay off about 1,000 full-time employees and as many as 600 temporary workers as it purchases Web credit company Bill Me Later and two Danish classifieds sites. Online retailer EBay Inc., which is trying to reverse years of slowing growth in its auction business amid rising competition and a spreading financial crisis, said Monday that it would cut 10% of its global workforce even as it spends $1.3 billion to buy three Web businesses.
Publisher of Orange County Register may have violated loan terms
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, said that it might be in violation of loan agreements and that it was in discussions with its lenders.
Financial literacy for kids
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Adults make plenty of mistakes with their money. Themint.org wants to keep teenagers from doing the same.

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