I defined forums as an instrument used to communicate, interact and collaborate with others (examples include discussions, chat rooms, messaging windows, calendars). They save information posted on a particular topic (not in real time) for other people to see at any time, creating a discussion environment. Everything that gets posted can be read again and again.
Blogs were defined as collections of articles, ideas, news, facts, opinions or inspirations that are “posted” on the internet. They are usually structured, organized by category and are updated often, if not daily. The owner of the blog is able to control the content.
Similarities
With both blogs and forums, you can post a comment and reply to other comments, thus developing discussions. In both cases, you can leave comments which may or may not be moderated and you may have to identify yourself with a name and email address.
Differences
There are many Difference and have been summarized in this chart below. :D
| Forums | Blogs | |
| Main purpose | Creates a discussion on a particular topic by allowing commenting of posts. | Posting or the content is the main purpose, not the commenting. |
| Discussion requires many participants | Yes - forums are created for discussion between several people. | No - mainly designed for a single user input. |
| Control of content (Authoring of New Topics) | Decentralized, group. All members usually have the ability to create new topics. Allows for more emergent and unpredictable directions that may reflect the group's desires as a whole. | Centralized, personal. New topics being presented by a defined and focused person or small group. |
| Focus | More unfocused - many contributors contributing user-generated topics (a wider variety of content) with differing viewpoints. Forums tend to create much more content, and will pull in traffic on topics or phrases that never occurred to you. | More focused as blogs are written and edited by a single author (or a small group). Replies tend to be directed more to the primary author. |
| Intent | Group input, decision making, collaboration. Accumulates group input and facilitates collaboration and group decision making. | Personal accounts, news, reflection. Trusted individuals provide accounts of events and information. |
| Chronology (order and presentation of topics) | Posting of replies can govern the presentation of the originating topic. Topics with new replies are often presented at the top (but not always). | Most recently posted topics at the top of the page, regardless of new comments. |
| Content organization (How topics are archived and organized) | Discussions often presented in multiple places across the online community and are archived independently. The member chooses the appropriate location to post a new topic, depending on subject matter. Creates multiple “front pages”, spreading the presentation of new topics across different locations in the community. | Topics are all presented on the weblog front page and then archived into categories. Each new topic is assigned to a category that is used to organize the topics for future reference. |
| Message length | Many short messages. | Used more for posting longer messages. |
| Responses | “replies” Participation is explicitly requested by the poster. A discussion is not a discussion without a reply. | “comments” The author does not need further participation to reach a goal - comment if you want. |
| Personal connections | Broader look at a larger number of members as they interact with one another in a group setting. | Can allow online community members to develop personal connections with the webloggers relatively quickly. |
| Log in | Yes | No |
| Registration required | Yes | No |
| Communicate directly with other forum members online through private messaging. | Yes | No |
| Show who's online at a given time | Yes | No |
| Provide statistical info, eg, how many comments posted over what period of time. | Yes | No |
| Notification whenever new or updated content is posted | No | Yes |
| Pollution Control (off-topic or inappropriate topics (or responses) | Must be managed closely to deal with spam or flames (see definitions below). Not able to turn off replies, but do prevent problems with moderation of each new topic or response. | Can be unspammable or unflame-able by others without loss of primary value. Can turn-off comments. |
| Ability to syndicate (republishing content from one site to another) content to anyone who wants to receive it . | No, content is more “private” | Yes, your content can appear on other blogs |
| Tools (see definitions below) | Most forums have not integrated tools used in blogs | ability to read and link weblogs together. They include: Trackback, RSS, Aggregation, Permalinking, Cross linking |
Ano na? :D San keo? :D Forums or Blog
0 comments:
Post a Comment