Bulletin board

A bulletin board or discussion forum is a dynamic web area which lets different people communicate. The bulletin board is generally composed of different discussion threads (sometimes called subjects or topics) each relating to a different area of discussion. The first message in a thread sets the topic of discussion, and the following messages (generally placed below the first) continue it.

Pseudonym

It is not recommended to post on a forum under one's real name, since discussions are "asynchronous," which means that a message left on a forum one day may stay there forever. If you post using your real name, someone might end up stalking you on all the forums you've ever visited. Certain laws, depending on where you live, may protect your right to access and change your personal data. Nevertheless, it may still be difficult to contact the administrators on every site which you have ever posted on, and they may have extreme difficulty in deleting every trace of your discussions.

For these reasons, it is recommended to choose a pseudonym (also called a pseud or nickname), which lets other users get to know you better as you post, while still keeping you anonymous to a certain extent.

Following the "terms of use"

Each bulletin board follows its own rules and sometimes has its own "customs." They are often understood by all users and are sometimes given in a document called a "terms of use" (often indicated with the words "Read this before posting") that specifies the conditions for adding a message to the forum and situations that may lead a message to be moderated (see below).

Before posting your first message on a bulletin board, it is always recommended to start by watching how the forum works and reading the terms of use (if there are any).

For example, the commentcamarche forum has its own terms of use.

Moderation

All discussions shown in a bulletin board are the responsibility of their authors and of the publishing manager (the publisher of the site which hosts the forum).

In order to ensure that the terms of the use are followed, and to comply with legal requirements, sites with a bulletin board generally implement a system for moderating posts. This means combining human effort and technical tools so that certain people can monitor and delete messages which do not follow the terms of use or which may cause legal trouble. The people in charge of this task are called moderators.

There are two kinds of moderation:

• Pre-moderation: Messages must be approved by a moderator before being published and appearing online;
• Post-moderation: Messages that are posted are automatically published (they appear online). The site reserves the right to delete these messages afterwards.