Definition
Web-based forums are probably best defined by first looking at a few examples:
- photo.net Forums
- Adobe Dreamweaver Forums
- SitePoint Forums
As you can see forums are lists of topics regarding a particular subject. These
topics are sometimes questions or issues, but are generally posted to elicit a
response. Almost all of the communication that takes place on the forums is in this
format of topic and replies.
Forums@BU
Forums@BU works similarly to all of the above forum systems. There are three main
pages used when reading the forums. The Forum Index, which lists all of the forums,
Topics List, which list all of the topics in a particular forum, and Reply List, which
lists the entire topic of a forum with all of its replies.
Forums@BU Index
The forum index lists each and every forum at Boston University. It
displays a the title of each forum, a brief description of the forum,
the number of topics and replies, and information about the last post to each
forum.
Topic Index
Topics are displayed on the Topic Index page with the newest topics first.
Each forum has its own topic index, and there is no cross-posting of topics between
forums. The title of the topic, along with the number of replies, the author's login
name, the number of times someone has looked at that topic (views), and information
about the last reply are displayed for each topic.
Reply List
The replies to a topic are displayed in chronological order. You find the replies to
a topic (along with the full text of the the original topic post) on a topic page.
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