blog vs forum one & the same?
-
Was talking to a techie type guy(trippie dudes) the other day and he told me that there was no difference between a blog and a forum, but, I notice that you have both a blog and a forum button. So, was he wrong, or are you redunant?
mainlander
-
-
-
have a forum set up on my website: seaoflifemainland.com/forum
He said all I had to do was change the extention to /blog from /forum and i had a blog.
Does my newie-ness show?
mainlander
-
He is wrong, but not completely. On a blog, typically there is only one person, or in some cases a few that make posts on the blog. Anyone can then come and comment on the blog posts, but they cannot start a new post unless you set them up as a contributor, author and such.
With a forum, all someone has to do is to get a username and password and they can post original things on the forum. Forums are typically used for something like this one.
So, the bottom line is “similar but different.”
And as far as changing the subdirectory, you can name it anything you like, you could name it dancing bunnies if you wished, that will not alter the underlying software that works from within that subdomain. When I installed Microsoft Office, I installed it in a folder called “Bill’s bloatware”. It’s still Office no matter what he subdirectory is called.
-
-
You’re welcome, and as I said, he is not entirely wrong. To anyone not familiar with how both work, and what they are intended to do, they could seem like they are the same thing.
-
For someone approaching it from the user side, however, they’re completely different.
A blog is built around the author. A forum is built around the community. And it’s entirely possible for the person who started the forum to get thrown off of it by the users, whereas that doesn’t happen with a blog. Anthropologically speaking, a blog is an individual or tiny group and the group they attract, and the difference in status is clearly defined. In a forum, there are three major roles and a great deal more fluidity: admin, moderator, or forum member, and all of these can and do change over time. The forum exists outside any one individual, whereas the same is not true of blogs in the purest sense.
-
So a blog’s social model is the diva and her entourage, or the host and his party guests. A forum is more like a park; some are private and you have to apply for admission, but some are public, and really nobody drives the forum. It’s not uncommon for authors to start forums on their sites in response to requests for more ways to interact, only to find the forum turning against them. And there’s very little they can do about it, if the forum’s reached critical mass.
Managerially speaking, a blog is a dictatorship and a forum is a consortium.
-
And it’s entirely possible for the person who started the forum to get thrown off of it by the users, whereas that doesn’t happen with a blog.
*cough*Chewy*cough*
- The topic ‘blog vs forum one & the same?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 