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IV.c. Discussion forums
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Discussion
forums are ideally suited for exchanging thoughts and experiences
within a group. Thus, they are widely used in the Internet and are a
fixed part of every Internet platform.
Communication in a discussion forum is asynchronous or delayed. Users
leave postings (contributions to the discussion) behind, which can be
read and answered by interested users later on.
In order to illustrate relations between questions and answers, two
different possibilities have established themselves: threaded-view
forums and flat-style (or linearstyle) forums. Threaded-view
forums display the relations between individual postings within a topic
in form of a tree structure. A hierarchical structure, which shows the
course of discussion, develops. Subsequently, it is possible to trace
which answer relates to which posting. Flat-style forums show all
contributions within a topic in strict chronological order according to
their publication date.
Contrary to e-mail (see chapter  IV.a. "E-mail"), online discussion forums offer decisive advantages for groups:
- All contributions are stored centrally. Every (authorized)
user can get an overview of the whole discussion and its current status.
- Question-answer relations are clearly illustrated.
- Users are not overstrained with undesired contributions, as
is the case with e-mails. Instead, they can choose whether they want to
participate in the discussion or not.
However, the usage of a forum does not necessarily trigger a
discussion. Usually, the exchange of knowledge needs to be actively
fostered and moderated, at least in the beginning.
At the beginning of a co-operation, it is crucial to make sure that
exchange takes place in the discussion forum. According to experience,
especially the average Internet user is tempted to use the daily used
and thus familiar e-mail to send messages to the group. A further
decisive factor is the response time to postings. If response time is
not successfully kept short, frustration sets in which can quickly turn
into a negative attitude towards this form of communication.
You can download the complete article here:
"Communication goes Europe - new paths in the web" (PDF, 624kB)
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