An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the web application software used to provide the facility. Web-based forums, which date from around 1995, perform a similar function as the dial-up bulletin boards and Internet newsgroups that were numerous in the 1980s and 1990s. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of different topics .
Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion forums, discussion groups, bulletin boards (but see also dial-up bulletin boards), fora (the proper Latin plural) or simply forums.
Culture
Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. In terms of countable posts, Japan is far in the lead with over two million posts per day on their largest forum, 2channel. The United States does not have any one large forum, but instead several hundred thousand smaller forums, the largest of which are GameFAQs, Gaia Online, and IGN. Other countries such as China, the Netherlands, and France are also home to hundreds of independent forums. Some countries such as Finland and Sweden do not have many prevalent forums despite having open and easily available Internet access. As of yet no study has been done on the prevalence of forums in countries around the world. It is also dubious as to whether any country has its own fora, as - especially in the English language - contributors to a forum often come from outside the country in which the forum is hosted. There is often not a 1-1 relationship between languages and countries: for example, English language fora are contributed to by people all over the world, whilst Japanese language fora are likely to be contributed to only by Japanese people, but Japanese people also contribute to English language fora, so there is no 1-1 relationship between Japanese language fora and Japanese people contributing to fora.
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L.A. Times - Religious News
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels opens its doors to mariachi camp Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 The L.A. cathedral plays host to young musicians learning the upbeat Mexican genre.
Joacim Naranjo plays the trumpet pretty well. But the 16-year-old from East Los Angeles found himself flapping his sore lips like a horse as he and a half dozen other boys tried to master the rapidly cascading sounds of a mariachi song.
How to spot counterfeit True Religion jeans Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 How to spot true blues Want to know if your new dungarees are truly True Religion? Here are some tips to help you separate the bona fide jeans from the fakes:
Retired judge's recusal will delay release of L.A. clergy sex-abuse files Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 Plaintiffs' attorneys have requested that a new judge be appointed to decide which L.A. Archdiocese personnel documents will be released to the public.
A year-old legal agreement requiring the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release confidential personnel records of priests accused of sexual abuse has been thrown into limbo by the departure of a retired judge selected to vet the documents.
Applied Taoism - Discussion of Taoism and its interpretation, application and practice in western society.
Meta Description: [ Applied_Taoism: Discussion of Taoism and its interpretation, application and practice in western society. ]
Beliefnet/Taoism - Sponsored by Beliefnet, a forum which attracts people who are trying to connect Taoism with other religions.
Dao Is Open - Discuss Daoism (Taoism), the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and anything to do with Dao (Tao). Includes a section to post your own translations of the Tao Te Ching.
Daoist Text Symposium - A Yahoo group centering on opinions of ancient and modern Taoist texts.
Meta Description: [ Daoist_Text_Symposium: Daoist Text Symposium ]
Scientific Taoism - Emphasising Taoism as a tradition friendly to serious, mainstream natural science. Visitors must register to view previous messages posted.
Meta Description: [ scientific_taoism: A list emphasising the philosophical, scientific and nature-mystical aspects of the Taoist tradition. ]
Seahorse Arts Forum - Taoist Arts of the Lee Style, including threads on T'ai Chi, Taoist Yoga and K'ai Men Chi Gung, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Feng Shou Kung Fu, also movies, books and game reviews.
Siu Tao Forums - Based in Indonesia, a forum for discussing all aspects of Taoism.
Tao Speaks! - Discussions of Taoist texts, Chinese characters, and Taoist philosophy.
500Taoist Restoration Society - Based on Religious Taoism, this forum only allows discussions directly related to that. All posts made by members become the property of TRS, as they claim copyright ownership.
The Taoist Garden - A Yahoo group for Taoist discussions.
Meta Description: [ thetaoistgarden: The Taoist Garden - Reflections of Taoism ]
The Tea House - Based on the I-Kuan-Tao religion from Taiwan, this forum includes discussions on all aspects of Taoism, with strict rules about proper conduct.
Wayfarers Wayfaring - Taoist mailing list intended for Taoist who would like to exchange thoughts on Philosophical Taoism, Yin/Yang as well as esoteric Taoist related concepts. Visitors must register in order to read posted messages.
Meta Description: [ Wayfaring: Taoist Mailing List ]
the CBS reality TV show Big Brother 10. We also have live feed chat and forums. www.myspace.com/bigbrotherklub ... bb10 ...