What is a Forum?

by **Duane Shotwell** Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:13 am

I realize that many of you have never used a forum before so here is a quick and dirty explaination of what a forum is and what it is used for.

A forum is a central community where online discussions take place and information is passed along. It is much like the bulletin board at most jobs. Members can kinda glance at it, see if there is any new information, and move on. Like the bulletin board at work, members can also post new information as well. A forum has several levels starting with the overall forum itself. The levels are as follows.

Section = These are the ones you first see with the blue border, Public Information, Pack 241 Discussion, Den Discussion, Etc.
Forum= These are the forums that hold the individual topics of a particular group. General Information, Pack Chat, Den #, etc.
Subforum = These are individual subforums inside of each forum. Each den forum starts out with four subforums; Den Chat, Den Meeting, Den Function, and Den Camping.
Topic = Inside of each subforum are topics. This is what the forums are all about. These are the discussions created by members to inform others.
Reply = This is the answer to any particular topic.

Thread = This is a term that is used sometimes to describe the topic and all replies of any given topic. It was a buzz word when forums started because topics and replies were called strings and the combination of both was called a thread.

I hope this helps some members who are new to forums. As always, please ask if you have questions.