Exercise: Find a Web Conference
There are several sites where you can search for a Web conferences. You might also consider running a search at Yahoo or any of the search engines for words and phrases like "web forum", "message board", "web-based discussion", "web conference" combined with your topic - for example "message board" parenting.
Specific Interests
FamilyHistory.com (www.familyhistory.com)
The Online Genealogy Community hosts over 130,000 message boards which are divided into three main categories, Surnames, Location, and Research Topics. You can search and browse.
GardenWeb Forums (forums.gardenweb.com/forums)
Garden Web claims to have forums that "comprise the largest community of gardeners on the Internet". There are forums by type of plant, type of garden, and on many topics.
VirtualDR (www.virtualdr.com)
Search by category for PC troubleshooting discussions!
General
Forum One (www.forumone.com) (Reinstated Apr/03)
Has a directory and search box to thousands of forums.
Looksmart - Message Boards (www.looksmart.com - under People & Chat)
Looksmart has a small collection of good quality boards classified by topic, from Auto to Travel, with boards on health matters, lifestyles, religions.
Yahoo! Message Boards (messages.yahoo.com):
Yahoo! has its own Message Boards which you can search and browse. A search will pull up particular boards and messages.
Yahoo! Groups has many more communication options such as file sharing and scheduling. There is much more activity on this site than on Message Boards however you should check both for your topic of interest.
Search
However, you can also simply search Yahoo for "message board" and get some good hits. Combine the term with what you want a message board on (e.g., A search for "message board" scotland). Of course, you can use any of your favourite search engines to search for message boards as well.
BoardReader (www.boardreader.com) finds and indexes the content of Web forums and message boards. Use the Advanced Search to see the topics or to run a keyword search on the messages. (New to WSG Apr/03)
WebCrossing (www.webcrossing.com/40/ Web Crossing provides "integrated collaboration tools and services". Site is interesting for descriptions of types of collaborative tools. Salon uses Web Crossing message boards as do the New York Times. USA Today, Toronto Star and Sympatico Forums. |
Where to next?
People can also discuss topics in a group weblog.