Jump to the following topics:

1. What is a discussion board?
2. Advantages and disadvantages.
3. Features of a bulletin board.
4. Managing a discussion board.
5. Resources.   

What is a discussion board? It is a web page where our visitors can leave messages, and participate in discussions based on other people's messages. This format is similar to the format of Usenet newsgroups. A discussion board is also called a bulletin board, a message board, or a forum.

Advantages and disadvantages.

1. Advantages.
   • We can get feedback regarding our products and services. The complaints help to point out problems to us; the compliments can be used as testimonials.
   • We generate "repeat visits." After people post a message on the board, they will probably return to our site, to see the responses to that message.
   • We can offer tech support. In a group situation, we can answer common questions for everyone at once -- and the participants can answer one another's questions.
   • We can create a sense of community through the interaction of our visitors.
   • We can gain additional listings in search engines. When the search engines' robots visit our site, they will make note of the keywords which are in the discussion board's messages. As a result, this page could gain some search-engine listings, in association with those keywords.
   • When we are using bulletin boards at other people's websites, we can publicize our product or service.
2. Disadvantages.
   • An unmonitored discussion board can degenerate into a display of profanity, vacuous chit-chat, libelous insults (against us or other companies), and other conversation with is nonproductive and embarrassing.

Features of a bulletin board.  

1. Cost. There are many companies which will put a bulletin board onto our site for free. To earn a profit, the companies will put their own ads onto the bulletin board.
2. Tech support. By phone or email. Quick response? 24x7?
3. Ability to "moderate." On most bulletin boards, the messages are posted immediately; thus, if a post is disruptive, we won't see it until our next visit to the message board. Other bulletin boards do not post the messages immediately; instead, the messages are stored until we read them. Then we can reject the disruptive posts so that they are not posted.
4. Ease of use.
5. Threading. As in Usenet newsgroups, "threads" are the continuing discussions of a topic; the messages from the same thread are grouped together on the page (instead of being posted in chronological order, and thus intermingled with messages regarding other topics).
6. Ability to customize. We might be able to customize the discussion board with our choice of colors, graphics, and backgrounds.
7. Profanity-blocking. Some discussion boards block designated words.

Managing a discussion board.

1. We can monitor the board periodically, to make certain that it does not contain any undesirable material, e.g., libelous material, ads from other companies (including pornographers and our competitors), etc.; we can even have a notice which asks our visitors to send us an email if they see any undesirable material on the board. If the board has a monitoring system, we need to check the stored messages at least once a day, to put the acceptable messages onto the board.
2. We can participate actively. We can submit questions, and answer other people's questions.
3. We can invite special participants. For example, we might invite an expert who is associated with our goods or services.
4. We can archive the messages. This archive will allow subsequent visitors to read the messages which have appeared on the board.
5. We can put the commonly recurring questions into a FAQ.
6. We can have two or more boards. For example, our business might sell ski equipment and ice skating equipment; we can provide a board for each sport.

Resources.  

1. Software.
   • Commercial software. Software packages are available for our server.
   • Freeware. There are many free CGI scripts which will create a discussion board.
2. A discussion-board provider. Some companies will put a discussion board onto our site at no expense. (The companies earn a profit by putting their own ad onto the board.)
3. Our website-hosting service. Some website hosts will provide a discussion board for our website at no extra expense.