Forums and Chats

Forums and chats are latest mediums of internet communication. Forums allow the users to engage in a discussion by posting their messages and replies or comments to the existing messages in a web based platform. Where as chats happen in real time, both the users should be online to communicate via the chat medium.

There are different terms used to refer to a forum and some of the terms used include – discussion board, bulletin boards, web forums and message boards. There are forums those are associated with websites allowing the website users to engage in a discussion regarding the subject matter of the website. There are also independent forums those are dedicated to discuss a specific topic or interest.

Today, forums serve many purposes which deviate from the original concept for which they were developed. One such use is to make forum posts to create back links for a website as forums allow live links either in the body or in the signature. Thus it serves as an SEO tool. Sometimes this leads to misuse of forums which spoils the entire morale of the forum. Spammers make repeated posts or post irrelevant content just for the sake of creating a back link. However most of the forums are monitored closely by the moderators who delete or block such posts from appearing. Sometimes forums are also used for advertising one’s products or services.

Chats on the other end serve a different purpose. They were developed to serve as a real time communication tool. Through online chats people one can easily communicate in real time others irrespective of the distance and that too free of cost. Another common term used to refer chats is Instant Messenger chats. There are many free chat service providers with whom one can sign up. You can join a common discussion through certain Instant Messengers; one can also make new friends through chats.

Online chats are also used in a number of ways today. Initially it was used only for friendly chats. Now, they have become a very common and accepted mode of business communication too. It is also possible to provide customer support through online chats. There are special chat software available in the market those allow one to track a whole lot of information about the website visitors and also to provide support to website visitors.

Most of the instant messengers today have provisions for audio and video chats. This makes chat communication lot more desirable over the other forms of communication those cost a lot of money.

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