Forum vs. Mesage Board

**AVdes** · Jul 1, 2005 16:32

I'm creating a forum for my website and was wondering which is more commonly used among web surfers. Forum or Mesage Board? I was wondering because I am going to add a text link from the home page and wanted to know which would be recognized the quickest.

**ses5909** · Jul 1, 2005 18:06

When I think of a forum... i think of a community. When i think of a message board... I think of a more non-personal environment.

**AVdes** · Jul 2, 2005 14:25

Cool Okay. I think I'm going with forum then. Thanks

**MaxS** · Jul 2, 2005 14:33

It depends. I think forum is appropriate for a tech savy community but I'd use Message Board on a site with visitors that may have never been to an internet forum before.

**iFroggy** · Jul 2, 2005 17:12

I go with Forums over Boards or Message Boards.

**Marubozo** · Jul 2, 2005 17:26

I also use Forums

**dojo** · Jul 3, 2005 04:24

I use forums too since I'm to lazy to type message board all the time. I also use community to imply the members in the forums are friendly and nice

**Bleys** · Jul 3, 2005 10:33

I use them interchangeably. But I think I prefer the term Forum (I use it more often, at least).

**ewebtalk** · Jul 3, 2005 14:56

I would rather prefer forum..as well, since it implies community

**edgeman** · Jul 5, 2005 08:52

I too use "forums", but I still use the term "message boards" for SEO and adwords.

**Imprint** · Jul 5, 2005 09:04

I primarily use the term forums. Message boards to me sounds more like a noteboard where someone can leave a message, much more like oneway communication. Forums instead signify forum discussion for me (as meant in the more historical, e.g. Roman) way, where the commucation is much more interactive.

But then again, many people will probably see this differently so message boards might work just as well or even better.

**LikeIsaid** · Jul 9, 2005 16:39

They are pretty much the same thing , but some good forum software like vb would be alot better then just a plain ole messager board

**altyfc** · Aug 1, 2005 16:21

I think the kinds of people that use forums/boards would predominantly use the word "forum" so I say go for that...

Aaron

**spl1nter** · Aug 2, 2005 10:02

Also, using the word forum allows your forum users to be "forumites" which is pretty cool

**altyfc** · Aug 3, 2005 01:48

Yeah... "messageboardites" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

Aaron

**boomers** · Aug 5, 2005 16:03

So is there any technical difference...?

I always thought message boards didnt really require a membership... you just posted your name and message, somewhat like a guestbook.