A successor to Usenet, a message board is a kind of web browser-based forum designed to facilitate ongoing conversations. Typically, there will be a list of "threads" of conversation, each of which can have multiple posts. Threads are usually sorted by the date-time stamp of the last post so that the threads with the most recent activity will be at the top, though any "sticky" threads will be listed above any non-sticky threads.
Message Boards that existed before the Web (you had to dial a different number for each server) are known as Bulletin Board Systems or BBS. Those that still exist use e-mail or telnet protocols. Old-school BBSes were superseded by the internet in the mid-90s, but they still have a cult following among retrocomputing enthusiasts. The terms Bulletin Board and Message Board are basically interchangeable now, however.
A Message Board can be very easy and inexpensive (even free) to set up, and can have an elaborate structure of sub-boards, so most any communal interest can have its own place (or more likely places) for discussions. They can be set up to be very open or very exclusive: either open to unregistered posters, closed to unregistered posters but with fully automated registration, or even requiring administrator approval of registration. They can also have as many different styles of moderation as there are personalities.
As a medium, message boards lend themselves to short works, such as brief critical analysis, capsule reviews, and compressed fanfic. They're most useful for interactive works, such as Play-by-Post Games. Longer works are typically better served by other media, especially where in-line interactivity is not a requirement.
A Shout Box is essentially a small, single-thread Message Board that is embedded in another webpage. An Imageboard is a Message Board that focuses on people posting images.
Examples:
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: The biggest and oldest one is the Acorn Cafe
; it is here where the Fandom VIPs meet. The Chip 'n Dale (both classic and Rescue Rangers) fan portal Chip 'n' Dale Online has its own large forum.
- The TV Tropes Fora is a message board.
- Something Awful: The term "Image Macro" apparently originated on the Something Awful forums.
- Rich Burlew's Giant in the Playground forums, associated with his Order of the Stick Webcomic and now also Balder & Noguchi's Erfworld, is an example of extensive rules and strict moderation. It also contains a high concentration of tropers.
- Gaia Online is one of if not the largest forums on the internet. It began as a simple anime/roleplaying message board and link list but has exploded into a community with millions of members.
- This is, of course, Older Than They Think. 2000 years ago, people were insulting each other's mothers, each other's sexualities, and bragging just like they are now — we have what they left behind in the ruins of Pompeii. So, oddly, this is Older Than Feudalism. The word "forum" itself has similar origins, but was used to refer to a discussion group long before the internet.
- WrestleCrap: After much demand, The Craphole was created on May 2011, around half a year after the website and its old message board (now The Freakin Awesome Network forums) parted ways in October 2010.
- Left 4 Dead: Saferoom graffiti really acts like this, although people who leave the saferoom probably don't return. Ever. Referenced in one of the safe room graffiti, wherein a ton of "posters" mock an over-the-top, saccharine love epitaph. Cool story bro! Lampshaded in another chain of graffiti, after a group of messages angrily respond to someone writing "WE ARE THE REAL MONSTERS", one survivor simply writes "I miss the internet."
- I Am a Hero:
- Online communities play a role. They're the most Genre Savvy about a Zombie Apocalypse, have less direct human contact, and so have better odds of survival. Not that it prevents the flaky, morally questionable types from running things...
- Makes another appearance near the end when Hiromi finally gets absorbed by the Hive Mind and sees it as the same message board shown earlier (with some of the same posters, for good measure).
- Betrayed: Gary and his brethren leverage the power of early Internet message boards to link up and coordinate meetings, training camps, and even weapon drops.