Internet Forums can be found on almost any subject that would interest anyone from Tapestry to Motorbike Maintenance. Another name often used for what we call forums is Boards. Boards comes from the very old Bulletin Boards which predate the internet as we know it now. They were used for exchange of information, asking for assistance, messages and sharing software.

The ABC forums which include Scribblygum are unique in that you can read a Topic ‘flat’ if you click on the Topic title or “View Full Thread” while at the same time allowing you to change to “View By Time” which lists ALL responses one after the other in the order posted regardless of Topic. The only forums that I know of that allow the “View By Time” function where every post is listed in chronological order are these ABC forums that use a unique custom forum design. The Regulars use the View by Time order so they can read the responses as they are posted rather than constantly returning to the Topics to check if there’s been further responses.

Thread = Topic

Post = Any Response to Topic or the post which starts the New Topic

The term thread comes from the way most early forums presented the questions and the responses. Responses are also known as posts. Rather than display the entire topic in a list format it was ‘threaded’. So Topics were Threads. The question or subject at the top and the answers or responses shown only as links. An example of this format is annoyances.com and slashdot. Some forums offer threaded as an optional view.

Unfortunately one of the ABC forums has been ‘converted’ to the more widely used ‘flat’ type.

Most commonly used forums around the internet present the topic ‘flat’ with all subject and responses listed one after the other. They are usually sorted into Subject Areas. So all the Topics under one Subject are listed together. There is no equivalent to our ABC View By Time except that the most recent posts lift the entire topic to the top of the list.