Discourse is the Future of Web Forums

Authors

Brandon Hopkins, Creator of Tech Hut

Suparna Ganguly

What are Web Forums?

Web forums allow its users to connect with one another via posting messages. Forum posts can be seen by any number of anonymous visitors, but to post messages, you need to have an account in that particular web forum. Within a web forum, you can either create a new post or post replies on other users’ posts, also called Threads. Many web forums go well beyond typical threads and messages with advanced features and tools. Some of these extras may include blogging, file management, photo galleries, and much more.

Why do you need one?

So, why do you need a web forum? You may need one for the following reasons.

Encourage Discussion: The main advantage of a web forum is that it encourages discussions. They are a powerful way for you to communicate over shared interests with your team members, clients, or other businesses. You could also create different communities of different groups. This would help people find topics and resources of their interests.
Mutual Interest Groups: Web forums are a great way to create a sense of community. People ask questions and share their own experiences about any subject. Thus web forums play a vital role in cultivating interest groups.
Seek Assistance and Support: Whenever you need help you ask a colleague or manager. But what if they aren’t available? Then you need to solve the problem by yourself. With a web forum, you don’t need to. Simply reach out to your community. Create a discussion thread asking for help. And you’ll get a solution without having to wait long.
Members Only: Discussion forums provide private access to only its members. None apart from its members can contribute to the discussions.

Web Forums Should be Free and Open Source

Web forums should be free so that they can be used by like-minded people to seek support, exchange ideas, and have discussions at the time of need. Discussion forums provide a space to discuss something which can’t easily be found on the Internet.

If you run a startup or a mid-sized enterprise, you may have to hire developers to build your own online discussion platform. This increases your cost. Fortunately, we have open-source web forums. Deploy open-source web forums directly on your server. And then customize to use them as per your requirements.