Ah, what the L

• LaiBhaari
• LastFM
• Late Night Shots
• Library Thing
• Lifeknot
• Linkagoal
• LinkedIn
• LinkExpats
• Listography
• LiveJournal
• Livemocha

 

There's no I in... oh wait, there is

• Ibibo
• Identi.ca
• Indaba Music
• Influenster
• Instagram
• IRC-Galleria
• italki.com
• Itsmy

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Gee

• Gaia Online
• GamerDNA
• Gapyear.com
• Gather.com
• Gays.com
• Geni.com
• Gentlemint
• GetGlue
• GirlsAskGuys
• Gogoyoko
• Goodreads
• Goodwizz
• Govloop
• Grono.net

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e-Net work

• Elftown
• Ello
• Elixio
• English, baby!
• Epernicus
• Eons.com
• eToro
• Experience Project
• Exploroo 

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Sites set

• CafeMom
• Care2
• CaringBridge
• Classmates.com
• Cloob
• ClusterFlunk
• CouchSurfing
• CozyCot
• Crunchyroll
• Cucumbertown
• Cyworld

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Networking, not working

If there's some slippage between the different communication formats, Wikipedia expands out from social media to social networking websites which then allows a comprehensive sweep of any kind of interchange. The list is too long to capture in one blog post

• 43 Things is used for goal setting
•  Academia.edu
• About.me
• Advogato
• aNobii
• AsianAvenue
• aSmallWorld
• Athlinks
• Audimated.com
• Bebo
• Biip.no
• BlackPlanet
• Bolt.com
• Busuu
• Buzznet

 

Ta da, data

So what comes in the form of a forum? It is one thing to know that the most successful electronic message boards focus on internet marketing, commercial website design and domain name trading. On the latest shiny new gadgets. For PC hardware enthusiasts.

I happened upon Warrior Forum and followed their discussions at various times. I'm not engaged in internet marketing so I've never thought to join.
Passive involvement in Digital Point is also possible.

I must have been in those newsgroups from the telnet days but I've wiped those from my memory. I started on DC Message Boards and from there was asked to join or found out about Deadpan Fury and Moorgus Maximus. Razoropolis and Incandescent were to follow.
At the time it seemed good to hang out with people who knew the same references. The proliferation of similar vehicles is testament to that.

Is it a world that is inward-looking? Well, there's bound to be forums on relational databases and blogs on SQL
Nairaland and India-Forums speak to the need for an e-equivalent of shared experience, one that has the dark continent and the sub-continent covered

Android Forums speaks to the rise of the mobile phone but also the popularity of the tablet and the consumption of larger screens still. Much to consider when formatting.

AVSforum.com is the largest discussion forum dedicated to Home Theatre, cinema, and the products used

So a combination of popularity - yer home theatre and Android applications - geek technology, national pastime/continental drift and gamers as here represented by Minecraft.
This is all very well but it does show how specific forums can get; they are defined by something even as nebulous as geographic boundaries or entertainment, they're not as open as social media or personal blogs.

If your passion is for poker (the fireplace implement not the card game you play for money) then you can find information or join a discussion in the 'topics outside what this message board is about channel' they often have. Perhaps there isn't a whole forum devoted to household pokers then it would be better to look for ones on log fire enthusiasts or fireside nostalgia; something that has a good chance of including pokers, rather than hoping that eavesdropping on Somalis might uncover an attractive wrought iron item.

To the fore

The features then of forums are flat vs. threaded, duplicate thread prevention, user-selectable themes, calendar, image attachments, unread message tracking, forum spam defences, user-friendly URLs, export capacity, email interface and single sign-on. Forum builders may have different ideas about the importance of these, these are the ones Wikipedia have used for comparison purposes so you can decide whether they are things you need or would prefer to have when building a board.

We turn to wealthresult.com for the top ten successful forums

1. WarriorForum
2. DigitalPoint
3. Nairaland
4. WebHostingTalk
5. MineCraftForum
6. India-Forums
7. AndroidForums
8. NamePro
9. AVSForum
10. HardForum

and start to wonder if we can do it too.

Forum o meant there

We're now deep in systems territory and that means that I, despite my claims to records management and the writerly habit of safely storing notes. am out of my depth well and truly. This might explain why some of my links are to less technical takes.

The Wikipedia page has two warnings, one dated from 2011 and one from 2014, about veracity. I find that whole thing fascinating. Did no one want to set the record straight or tidy some referencing on the subject of online forums? Should we read anything into this?
In the interests of further linkage I'm most keen to understand those features of message boards and that's where their (as at 5th July 2017) tables and graphs are useful. Messages can be flat or threaded. Curiously, thredded's is not threaded.

Some researchers may appreciate the information that Brian Moon is the creator of Phorum. Technical types who are considering their options may opt to go with the MyBB Group whose latest release was in May, over the open source Sindie or PHPWind of the Hangzhou Detian Information Technology Co. Ltd which haven't had updates since 2014.
This is where the veracity comes in; we have a Hangzhou Detian Experimental Primary School, a construction decoration engineering company and a mechanical and electrical equipment limited company but no information technology company, limited or otherwise.

Data storage system

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MSSQL
• Oracle
• SQLite
• Firebird
• Flat file