factline-website-neu

IV.c. Discussion forums
gruen_linie - 146409.3
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 “linear“style“) 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 arrow.png - 164746.4 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.


interner Link - zurück back





You can download the complete article here:
öffnet ein neues Fenster "Communication goes Europe - new paths in the web" (PDF, 624kB)