An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user-generated content. Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, newsgroups, message boards, discussion boards, bulletin boards, fora (the Latin plural) or simply forums.

The terms "forum" and "board" may refer to the entire community or to a specific sub-forum dealing with a distinct topic. Messages within these sub-forums are then displayed either in chronological order or as threaded discussions.

A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games, sports, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of topics.

Membership and anonymity

Anonymous forums may offer full anonymity, allowing posts without registration. Captchas and e-mail authentication are often used to prevent comment spam on such forums. Registered members of a forum, identified by unique usernames, may have additional privileges, such as the ability to edit their previous posts, start new topics, and control their individual settings and profiles.

The profiles tend to include Gravatars and signature blocks which are appended to their future posts, sometimes consisting of elaborate shoutboxes.

Whilst some forums require the member to visit the website and check for new posts, many modern forums offer an "e-mail notification" feature, whereby members can choose to be notified of new posts in a thread they are interested in.

Administration and Moderation

A forum administrator typically has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum. Administrators also usually have the ability to close the board, change major software items, change global skins, modify the board, and ban, delete, or create members. Moderators have a subset of these powers, which may include editing, deleting, and moving threads, mass pruning, warning members for offences, and changing minor forum details. Other features may include sticky threads, allowing moderators and administrators to cause significant threads to display at the top of the forum's index.

Netiquette

Individuals must agree to a Registry Agreement that defines a forum's rules before joining that particular forum.

There are a number of acts that break "netiquette" (hover the mouse over to read more), such as multiple posting, spamming and trolling.