Difference between MessageBoards and Forums

[deepuk75]

Can someone explain to me what is the difference between a messageboard
and forum. Can they be used interchangeably. Or Is a Forum part of a
messageboard or vice versa ?
I want to understand the parent child relationship.

Is it MessageBoard->Forums->Categories->Topics Or

Forums->Categories->MessageBoards->Topics

hope somebody will explain...

thanks

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

I don't think there is an "official" format for them. There is, however,
official stuff for newsgroups, because they have their own protocol and
stuff just like email does. How a site displays Message Boards and Forums
all depends on how the site's designers chose to do it. My preference,
however, is newsgroups because they have a consistent format and you can
view newsgroups from the same server in the same application window with the
same account, and you don't have to register for a username/password in most
cases. I think the only reason people use Message Boards and Forums is
because they are too "scared" of trying to learn another technology, I guess
that's why so many of the popular newsgroups are about computers and
technology. But using them isn't really that different from using email,
except that you don't send the stuff to an individual (but you probably
already knew all that, since I can see that you are already a newsgroup
user). I have never heard anyone or anywhere say "That's a Message Board,
not a Forum" or "That's a Forum, not a Message Board", so I think they are
interchangeable.