A forum is an outlet for opinions expressed as a discussion or question and answers. The opinions or Q&A are crowdsourced from an audience involved with the subject matter.
How is a forum different from other applications?
All of a forum's content is crowdsourced. This is different from a blog, which is authored by 1 individual or a group of authors. It's different from a wiki in that the author is a permissioned author. (Wikis also have a versioning feature that forums don't have.) A gallery has nearly unlimited media space, limited only by the setup of the community. Forums also have RSS, which only galleries and forums have.
A forum has 2 features that aren't in any other application:
- I also have this question. This feature on a forum thread question has a counter which increases whenever someone checks the "I also have this question" check box;
- Suggested answer/verified answer. The author of a reply can click Suggest as answer, which turns the thread header yellow. If the answer is verified, the header turns green. (However the answered status can be changed.)
How do I create a forum?
Please follow the instructions on the What is an application? article.